Written by Sarah S.
This past weekend, Miss Daisy went to our first competition of the year, the FIRST® Mid-Atlantic Hatboro Horsham District Competition! On load-in day, Friday, the team unloaded all of our materials and our drive team participated in three practice matches. This year, we introduced a new driver and operator. Despite this, teams at the event immediately noticed us and were interested in our well performing robot even before the real matches began.
On Saturday, we ended off strong by winning all but one of our 9 qualification matches that day – placing second overall. Our pit crew worked tirelessly in between matches, making sure the robot was in its best shape and ensured we would have no on-field breakdowns. Our strategy team and scouting members also gathered information about our competitors, making sure statistics on every robot were recorded. This helped us immensely when picking our partners later on. Our mobile pit crew checked up on other teams, making sure that our partners and competitors were in good shape for their matches.
On Sunday, we won our last three qualification matches and achieved the event’s high score of 204! We ended mid-Sunday placing 2nd out of 32 teams. Our media team documented every part of the event – taking photos, videos, and interviewing team members along the way. Our spirit team was phenomenal during the event, cheering the team and robot on for every match. For elimination rounds, we were chosen for alliance #1, by the 1st ranking team, Krypton Cougars. Our alliance successfully won the first three elimination matches, but we knew our final matches were going to be difficult. Our first finals match was won by three points. In our second match, we were able to win the event by having only a one point lead.
Our public relations and awards team talked to countless judges about our robot and our team’s outreach. Through this, we were able to receive the Excellence in Engineering Award! We have won this award a total of 9 times over 3 years. One of our team members, Isabel D., was also selected as a Dean’s List Semi-Finalist! Thank you to our coaching staff, sponsors, and hardworking students. Our win at Hatboro Horsham could not have been achieved without you. Miss Daisy is now preparing and is excited to participate in our next competition at Springside-Chestnut Hill Academy!
