Robotic Burros 7422B and 7422H approached the Feb. 8 Kern Robotics Late Season Skills-Only Competition — aka, the “Last Chance” event — with one goal in mind: to increase their season-high skills score and thereby earn a spot at the regional state competition. Following successful performances by both groups, all four Burroughs teams will now be competing in the March 15 championship.
“We worked hard all week to get our robot ready for the competition,” said 7422H Team Captain Brenden Zirger, a junior. “It was a struggle but we came through in the end.”
Prioritizing the robot did not leave much time for practicing driving or preparing for the skills match, causing some anxiousness heading into the event.
“I was slightly worried I wouldn’t do well while driving, but it all worked out in the end,” said junior Ian Patin, 7422H’s driver.
During the competition, teams are allowed three driver-skills runs and three autonomous-skills runs. Team 7422B, wanting to get their name on the leaderboard, did two driver-skills runs immediately.
“When we got there, we were the first ones to get inspected so we could start practicing our auton, which was our main worry,” said 7422B’s Tyler Beitnes. “We messed up on our first driver-skills run — only getting 26 points — but in the next run we got 32 points, putting us in first place.”
Heading into the event, both teams worked strategically on their autonomous skills code, trying to perfect it and prevent any issues.
“Our first auton run failed, which was a real blow to our morale,” said 7422B’s Angel Valiente. “Thankfully, though, on our next attempt it worked.”
Team 7422B finished the day in sixth place with a combined score of 45 points — 32 from driver skills and 13 from autonomous. 7422B consists of Talen Houck, Angel Valiente, Tyler Beitnes, and Arwen Jacotin.
Team 7422H finished the day in thirteenth place with a combined score of 32 points — 27 from driver skills and 5 from autonomous. 7422H consists of Brenden Zirger, Ian Patin, Matthew Firouzi, and Tyler Torres.
