FIRST Robotics Competes Nationally

USM’s FIRST Robotics Team #6823 completed a marathon season this spring, in which team members traveled to Albany, New York; Milwaukee; and Huntsville, Alabama for three different regional competitions.

Albany, New York | March 13–16, 2022

At the New York Tech Valley regional competition, the team won nine of the 10 qualifying matches and was ranked seventh out of 41 teams, allowing it to be the fifth seed alliance captain for the playoff matches. Though the team was eliminated in the quarterfinals, they did not leave empty-handed: USM Wildcats robotics mentor, Ryan Petersen, won the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award for outstanding mentor and one of the team captains, Mackenzie Petersen ’23, won the Dean’s List Finalist Award for demonstrating passion and commitment.

Milwaukee | March 23–26, 2022

After making some repairs to the robot in the Lubar Center for Innovation and Exploration, the team competed in the Wisconsin Regional competition in Milwaukee where they finished sixth out of 42 robots and became the fourth seed alliance captain. During the afternoon, the team dominated in the quarterfinals, winning two of three matches, and moved on to the semifinals.

Huntsville, Alabama | April 6–9, 2022

The team then traveled to Alabama, where they completed 58 qualification matches out of a total of 82 for the weekend, and was ranked second out of 49 teams—the highest rank the team has achieved in its five-year history. After all of the qualification matches finished, the team ranked fifth out of 49 robots, became the fourth seed alliance captain, and chose its two alliance partners to move into the playoffs in the afternoon.