The Lytle Techno Pirates walked away from their first meet of the season in fourth place, winning three of their five matches.
The Lytle Junior High Robotics Team competed against 17 other schools at Harmony Science Academy on Nov. 18.
During the first match, programmers Weston Cook and Elyssa Beazer's autonomous program failed to score and the team was surprised to learn that the starting point they had used to make the program was wrong.
Once the team's driver, Isaiah Valdez, took over control of the robot however, the team won the match with their robot's front-mounted claw and a rack and pinion hook mounted on the chassis which enabled the robot to pick itself up off the mat at the end of the match for 20 points.
The programmers rushed back the pit area and cranked out a new program for the correct starting point and as a result, the team added even more points to their totals. The team won their first two matches, 28-10 and 26-20.
The Techno Pirates consistently outscored almost all of the mostly high school teams at the competition, but a complete power loss during match 3 forced their first loss, 34-41.
The Pirates got their robot back in action for their fourth match, scoring 35 points, but a powerful opponent the Tech Syndicate powered their way to the highest score of the meet - 89 points - to win.
Brushing off the hard loss, the team was firing on all cylinders in their last match, this time with Lytle High School's robot as their opponent. The team's autonomous program worked perfectly. Isaiah's driving pulled in the most points the team had scored so far. And when the team's robot was hanging from the 20-point goal at the end of the match, they had totaled 54 points, winning their final match.
The meet represents the first of four competitions which will determine the league championship. So far, the Techno Pirates are in good shape to vie for that championship with only one league competitor outscoring them at Meet 1.
Junior High Techno Pirates Take Fourth Place at their First MeetThe Lytle Junior High Techno Pirates wait for a judge to inspect their robot before match play begins. Pictured are Elyssa Beazer, Isaiah Valdez, Weston Cook, Abril Perez and Sarai Calvio.
Abril Perez and Isaiah Valdez wait for their final score to be tallied as their robot hangs from the goal.