THE GORGE — Five local robotics teams returned from the VEX Worlds Robotics Competition with top-10 placements, the Inspire Award, and memories to last a lifetime.
This year three teams from The Dalles and two from Hood River surpassed numerous hurdles and challenges to advance to the world’s largest robotics competition held April 24 to May 3 in Dallas, Texas.
Teams Syntax Error and System Overload from The Dalles High School placed within the top 10 of their 84-team divisions, with System Overload making it to the quarter finals in division finals.
System Overload, comprised of seniors Ian Castaneda, Jack McAllister and Colin Schecter, also earned the Inspire Award, showcasing their determination, positive attitude and dedication to the activity.
“Winning a division judged award amidst the field of competitive teams here is incredibly difficult and a huge accomplishment,” said Wasco 4-H STEM Coordinator Lu Seapy.
More than 800 teams from around the globe competed in the high school tournament.
Both high school teams were returning Worlds competitors; 2024 marked System Overload’s fifth time qualifying for the tournament. Syntax Error (made up of sophomores Everest Lenardson, Kim Morales and Evelyn Schecter and junior Zach Banks) attended last year as rookies.
Syntax Error team member Evelyn Schecter said, “Going into worlds my goal was to win more matches than last year and we did that. We won four times as much.”
The middle school teams traveling to VEX Worlds this year included Barcanados and The Dust Pans from Wy’east Middle School and Disconauts representing Wasco County 4-H and The Dalles Middle School. All teams were rookies new to competing at the Worlds finals level.
Within the VEX IQ middle school competition, the Disconauts placed 29th and Barcanados placed 39th, with The Dust Pans sweeping into 53rd place of their divisions of 84 teams each.
“It was great to see our kids compete with teams from Kuwait, Thailand, Spain, and China. People came from all over the world and brought some of the most inspiring designs for others to learn from. It was such a rich experience for our students. They will never forget it,” said Wy’east Club Coordinator Patrick Getchis.
In the Robot Skills portion of the competition, teams compete individually and are ranked on their ability to program their robot to move autonomously and their driver control skills. Disconauts placed 53rd out of the total 400 teams, with Barcanados 66th and The Dust Pans placed 72nd.
“Dallas was really exciting and really frustrating. I had the best time ever. I’m coming up with ideas for next year’s challenge. It’s so different! I want to make it back,” said Ronan Kairis of the Dust Pans.
In both games, students raced to drive their robots through a series of tasks, either collecting blocks or acorn-shaped game elements and depositing them in goals. The high school competition added the bonus challenge of climbing obstacles and elevating robots off of the field.
“Competing at the worlds level is a huge accomplishment. Making it to the top 10s, 20s or even 50s is incredible. I couldn’t be more proud of this regional effort,” said Seapy.
All teams relied heavily upon community support to attend this event and would like to thank platinum sponsors Cardinal Glass, Columbia Gorge STEM Hub, Fox Tail Cider, Google, Hood River Rotary, North Wasco PUD, Oregon State University, The Dalles High School, Hood River School District, The Dalles Lions Club and York Hill Stables.
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