Robotics Excels at Roboticon

Roboticon at the University of South Florida is a big off-season event in high school Robotics. Each fall, a few dozen of the best FRC FIRST Robotics teams from Florida convene at USF's Yuengling Center for a weekend of competition.

After two days of hard-fought competition this past weekend (Oct. 12-13), Jesuit's Stealth Tigers Team 3164 had reached the Final at Roboticon.

Jesuit and its alliance partner in the Final, the Ninjineers from Plantation American Heritage, extended the best 2-of-3 Final to a fourth match due to a tie before succumbing and finishing as event runners-up to an alliance that included two multi-school teams, Children of the Swamp from the Riviera Beach area and Nerds of Prey from Lake County.

"We had a great weekend," Jesuit Robotics moderator Lauren Hescheles said. "The students did an awesome job of getting the robot ready and making adjustments along the way. We were right there at the end."

Using a robot from the spring 2019 season – they'll build new robots for the spring 2020 season after the January 4 FIRST Robotics FRC season kickoff and game reveal – the Stealth Tigers won 2-of-3 in the Quarterfinal and Semifinal. They adopted a defensive posture as they entered the Final with their max-weight, 120-pound robot.

"Our robot was big, strong, and fast," Hescheles said. "We turned it into a defensive menace while the Ninjineers tried to score points."

Saturday began with several hours of practice in the Yuengling Center and then half of the qualifying matches. Sunday they completed qualifying, and the teams that advanced began the playoffs. Jesuit students representing the Stealth Tigers at Roboticon were: Carson Reams '20 (president), Daniel Prendes '20 (vice president), William Ankers '22, John Barreto '21 (captain), Hector Duarte '22, Trey George '22, Brennen Gil '20, Paul Gray '22, Logan Kant '22, Nathaniel Moore '22, Dominic Newberg '20, Joshua Newman '23, Jack Price '20, David Serdiuk '22, Jude Soriano '23, Cooper Stack '23, Matthew Tran '22, Luke Turner '23, Luca Valenti '20, Alex Wasylik '21, and Kaden Wheeler '22, along with Academy of the Holy Names students Gabby Consalvo, Laura Caroline Jung, Olivia Scarpo (captain), and Claire Wong.