The Penn-Trafford High School Robotics teams continued their successful season with tournaments at Keystone Oaks and North Allegheny. The object of this year’s competitions, named “Spin Up”, is to build, program and drive robots to collect and launch discs into a goal within a 12’ x 12’ playing field. Each 2-minute round began with a 15 second autonomous period for which the teams pre-programmed the robot movements; during the remaining 1:45 team members were permitted to drive their robots via remote control.
Four teams from Penn-Trafford traveled to Keystone Oaks for their state qualifying tournament on January 13. They competed against 24 other teams from across the Southwestern Pennsylvania region.
The Penn-Trafford teams received the following awards:
Team 1462A - Skills 2nd Place
Team 1462B - Skills Champions
Team 1462D - Tournament Finalist
On February 3, the P.T. teams hit the road again, visiting North Allegheny for another state qualifying tournament. They faced 26 other teams with the following results:
Team 1462A - Excellence Award - Top award for the tournament.
Team 1462B - Design Award
Three of the four PT teams have qualified for the Western PA State Championship which will be held at Clarion University on March 10th. The fourth team has an opportunity to be invited based on their skills ranking in the region.
The P.T. Robotics teams that have qualified for the State Championship are:
1462A - Daniel Bracken, Zach Cassidy, Tyler Heidenreich, and David Tharp
1462B - A.J. Aquino, Carl Heller, Noah Moffa, and Joe Turkovich
1462C - Alivia Conrad, Vince Patalski, Ben Pratkanis, and Nick Yuhas
The Penn-Trafford teams are coached by Mr. Jeff Newsom.
Some of the robotics students gather after the Keystone Oaks tournament; (left to right) Brant Urban, Jessica Graham, Kolin Ditter, Frankie Coakly, Joe Turkovich, Noah Moffa, A.J. Aquino, Carl Heller, David Tharp, Daniel Bracken, Zach Cassidy, Tyler Heidenreich
David Tharp, Tyler Heidenreich, Zach Cassidy, and Daniel Bracken placed Second in Skills at the Keystone Oaks tournament and took the top award for Excellence at North Allegheny
Brant Urban, Frankie Coakley, Kolin Ditter, and Jessica Graham were finalists at Keystone Oaks and are still vying for a spot in the state tournament
Carl Heller, A.J. Aquino, Joe Turkovich, and Noah Moffa were Skills Champions at Keystone Oaks and received the Design Award at North Allegheny
Penn-Trafford competes at North Allegheny
Penn-Trafford competes at North Allegheny
A.J. Aquino, Joe Turkovich and Carl Heller adjust their robot between rounds