Auburn Senior High School District Competition Mar31-Apr2: SHELTON HIGH ROBOTICS TEAM HEADS TO NORTHWEST CHAMPIONSHIP

Longshot Finishes 3rd in Auburn (36^th Last Year)

Shelton WA, April 3, 2017– The Shelton High Robotics Team qualified for the April 6-8 Pacific Northwest Championship, featuring the top 64 Oregon and Washington FIRST™ Robotics Competition (FRC) teams, held in Spokane suburb Cheney at Eastern Washington University.  All competitions are open to the public and typically draw hundreds of spectators.  Matches may be watched live at http://www.firstwa.org/ . Completed matches may be viewed at https://www.thebluealliance.com/team/5295 .

Competing as 4-H Team 5295 “Aldernating Current” at the April 1-2 district competition at Auburn Senior High School, the team completed the 12 preliminary matches with an 8 – 4 record and advanced as the #7 playoff alliance. Alliance Captain Carolynn R. used the team’s excellent scouting to decline an offer to join the #5 alliance, and built a successful alliance with the #14 Team 2412 “Robototes” from Sammamish Senior High School in Bellevue and the #15 Team 3219 “TREAD”, the host Auburn team. The team’s new scouting plan was based on advice from the team’s sister 4-H Grays Harbor County Westport Team “Fishy Business Inc.”, which qualified for the 2017 & 2015 World Championships.  To help prepare Olympic Middle School students added 2016 performance data on all 35 teams competing at Auburn into the new scouting sheets.

The Shelton High Robotics Team began the playoffs with the highest alliance score of the entire weekend upsetting the #2 alliance with a 2-0 quarterfinal victory (best two-of-three match). The team earned an excessive score 100 point bonus in a quarter of its matches. The team also had the high score at its Mount Vernon competition March 18-19 where it placed 7th. Team Captain Jaeden H. said “I believe that the team has gained knowledge and learned from the past experiences and is a reason why we did so well.”

The Shelton High Robotics Team also won the Spirit Award at the Auburn Senior High School competition.

Nine students competed at Auburn (Abbie A., drive captain Carolynn C., pilot Dylan R., safety captain and pilot Jacob H., Team Captain Jaeden H., climber Kiery E., gear loader Kirstin G., Robert G.-A., and driver Tristin N.) guided by six adult volunteers: R.Clarey, K.Hansen, A.Hospador,  F.Newby, A.Walker and Coach J.Wright.

The $4000 Spokane travel cost will be eased by a recent Skokomish Tribe $2000 award to the three Shelton School District robotics teams, an $1100 pledge from 4-H Mason County, $468 students raised in car wash and concession work, and $100 from AlphaTest, one of 32 team sponsors.