NYS champ Wellsville High School robotics team makes run at Worlds in Dallas

May 6, 2024

51 1 minute read

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The Wellsville High School VEX Robotics Team 14895B made its second consecutive appearance in the VRC World Championships in Dallas, Texas, last month and the reigning Northern NYS Champions made a deep run in the Lone Star State.

Wellsville’s “Big Cat” team featuring seniors Ben Jordan, Ethan Bailey, Cooper Brockway and Sean Driscoll, along with junior Lucius Griggs, advanced out of qualifying and earned a quarterfinal berth in a three-day event that included 800 of the world’s best robotics teams from more than 50 different countries.

Wellsville came through two days of qualifying matches with a 7-3 record, placing in the top 20 and advancing to the elimination rounds as an 8th-seed in their division after forming an alliance with a J.L. Mann High School, S.C. team. Wellsville was eventually knocked out in the quarterfinals.

“The team was able to overcome some early adversity to make a run on Day 2,” Wellsville coach Justin Skrzynski said. “Their ability to work together and delegate tasks ensured that necessary repairs could be completed quickly and accurately after each qualifier.

“Our Drive Team was able to quickly read and adapt to the game play strategy from match-to-match, while our lead programmer was able to adjust our autonomous code between each match to ensure that we complemented our alliance partner.”

The VEX Robotics Competition is the largest and fastest growing middle school and high school robotics program globally with more than 20,000 teams from 50 countries playing in over 1,700 competitions worldwide.

Wellsville earned its way to the world competition at the March New York State VRC Over Under Championships in Queensbury. A Wellsville and Lake George alliance defeated a Chittenango and Lake George team in two straight matches. The Wellsville team was also the “Judges Award” winner in Queensbury.

Wellsville Robotics Program growing with young students

The Wellsville Robotics Program is about seven years old. The school participated in First Robotics initially and started the VEX Robotics program six years ago with one team. The high school now has three teams.

At the lower levels, elementary and middle school students participate in Lego League Robotics.