As rows and rows of people in the audience stare silently, teams 3350C and 3350A from Texas High School work together against 87867D and 20480Y in the final championship round at Wolfe City. Awarded tournament finalists, Texas High lost from 181-180.
“Eliminations are always the toughest battles of the day,” senior Cristal Hernandez said. “There is so much on the line at these competitions, everyone trying their best. But sadly, there will always be those who out play others.”
With this finalists award, teams 3350C (Nicholas Spivey, Brett Sparks, and Evan Wyche) and 3350A (Gavin Smith and Salem Alonge) become qualified for UIL State in Houston. This makes Texas High’s third year in a row to qualify for State, with 3350C going their third year and 3350A going for their first.
“It’s so nice that we qualified for Houston again,” senior Brett Sparks from 3350C said. “It is by far my favorite competition with so much to do there. I also enjoy the amount of 5A competitive teams who will be present.”
Texas High’s overall record for the competition was 25 wins and eight losses, with 3350 bringing home four trophies this weekend, making it Texas High’s best record so far this season and second best in 3350’s history. Three teams from Texas High, all in the top 15 in state scores and top five in OPR (Offensive Point Record), currently sit on top for first, second and fourth in engineering notebook rankings across the region.
“We have come a long way from my freshman year,” senior Gavin Smith said. “We used to hope and pray for awards in a competition, but now we get them regularly and qualify for big events earlier than usual.”
Team 3350C also won an innovation award for their engineer notebooks, along with 3350H (Cristal Hernandez, Daisy Ontiveros , Brayden Ahrens, and Zeph Craig) who won a design award. 3350B (Grant Shaw, Kunan Anjum, and Ethan Garcia) also competed in the tournament and made it to semifinals with 2148A from Greenville. 3350B, a freshman team who was created due to multiple freshmen joining robotics at the beginning of this year, continue to perform, even placing third in qualifications.
“Going into my second competition of the year, I was a little nervous,” freshman Grant Shaw said. “But we got third overall and second in skills, by the time I came out of the tournament, I was no longer nervous about competing in tournaments.”
Overall, Texas High Robotics competed in three tournaments this year and plan on going to eight more. Robotics coach Mark Ahrens plans for the goal to qualify for worlds is in action.
“We’re doing an excellent job this year and I hope to continue this success far beyond just our seniors,” Ahrens said. “We hope to qualify for worlds and leave a legacy that others can follow. So we will continue to do our absolute best.”
