In the News: NHS robotics program will send three teams to state meet

McMINNVILLE — The Newberg High School robotics programs will sending three teams to the ORTOP state championships after rookie team Revolution advanced from one of the super qualifying tournaments Newberg hosted over the weekend at the Evergreen Space and Aviation Museum.

Both Newberg teams in competition Saturday — Bullet Proof and Revolution — had their fair share of struggles and complications during the preliminary rounds of the robot game and finished ranked 16th and ninth, respectively.

Neither were selected as alliance partners to continue on to the semifinals for a chance to automatically qualify by winning the tournament.

However, Revolution won the Think Award for its outstanding use of the engineering notebook during the design process, thus punching its own ticket to state. The log was primarily the responsibility of sophomore Marcos Cazares.

“We feel good that we got this far and have done this well, especially for a rookie team,” Revolution teammate J.D. Drill said. “We don’t have much experience, so we’re pretty proud of ourselves.”

Newberg already had two automatic bids in hand because it served as tournament host Saturday and Sunday, so Revolution’s bid left Bullet Proof, Team Aeterna and the Iron Men to scrimmage Tuesday (results unavailable at press time) for the remaining two spots.

“I still had fun,” Bullet Proof member Brandon Takahashi said. “It was a good experience.”

By Seth Gordon, Newberg Graphic