Tritons own robotics team, lead by math teacher Ms. Kathy Norton, went to the WPI robotics Tournament and secured first place for the Triton on November 18th, 2017 . The team had come close before but for the first time they had won the tournament leading to much celebration.

“The win is spectacular for our school,” said Norton, “Students worked really hard designing and building their robots under the constraints, and I always say our students compete with professionalism, and this is a huge win as we’ve never won before.”

The team arrived at Triton at 5:50 in the morning the day of the competition, they loaded up the bus with their gear and rode to WPI to compete. Sleepy and cold, they arrived determined to take home a victory.

The group consisted of four teams, each with their own robot. The teams then competed against other opponents from different schools to try and win for the overall group. The competition consisted of a 2v2; each team’s goal was to collect ping pong balls or tennis balls and place them in goals at various heights to score points, or as a last effort in the last 30 seconds the team could try and capture the star and climb into the black hole for bonus points. Each bot fought for a spot in the top 8 in the qualifying round to continue into the quarter finals however, in the last few rounds every Triton bot was barely pushed out of a top spot. Crestfallen the Triton group began to gather their things when they were suddenly picked to compete with the members of the top 8. The competition functioned as a 2 vs 2,  in the quarterfinals the top 8 bots got to pick two other teammates to compete with to win; One partner to compete with and the other to stay as an alternate. Every Single Triton High School robot was selected to continue on a team in the quarter finals. In the quarter finals, two of the Triton bots were knocked out of the competition. Then in the semi-finals one of the remaining two was knocked out. Finally, it was the grand finals and Triton had a single bot remaining. In the first round our Triton team lost, but due to quick thinking by Tritons teammate, a robot from a different school, the top robot competing against the team was countered and quickly thrown off its game as it was the first time they were beaten all day.. With the top bot left scrambling, the team quickly swept up victory along with four additional awards for their performance.

The Triton team threw themselves into a celebration, completely astounded by the unexpected victory that came from being fortunately picked to compete in the quarterfinals.

¨We were up so early and I honestly didn’t expect to make to quarterfinals but we won!” said sophomore Maddi MacDonald of the robotics team.

The winning Triton robot was made by junior Nate Picard and was assisted by senior Liam Cashman in piloting it. The two worked hard and because of that the Triton team was able to win. With the victory under their belt and high spirits, Norton has plans for the team to keep up the momentum:

¨We are planning to compete with governor’s academy , and keep watch for any other competition that’ll come up. We picked WPI cause they work with the students and its great for students to see that environment.¨

The picture below features the whole team smiling after a great win

The team looks forward to future competitions with new found confidence with them, and with any luck and skill they’ll bring home more victories for Triton High School.