A small group of Whitewater High School students, Elijah Grall, Jazmin Cederberg, Peter Portwine, Emerson Dunham, Andrew O’Toole, Andrew Zimmermann, Payton Bunger, and Mel Prince, fielded two robots at the Lakeshore Invitational in Manitowoc on Saturday, July 16, and Ferradermis’ in-season competition robot (wearing #6574) brought home a blue banner as the captain of the winning alliance.
The second Ferradermis robot (wearing #9574) is the team’s off-season project bot allowing the team to implement a swerve drive for the first time and experiment with some alternative designs for mechanisms. Fielding a second bot also allows more students to get experience as members of a drive team. In one qualification match, #6574 and #9574 faced off against each other, and in another, they were able to play on the same randomly assigned alliance.
After a hard-fought day of competition with and against 15 total robots, Ferradermis became the captain of the #3-seeded playoff alliance and asked Team #930 the Mukwonago Bears and Team #7768 The Iron Hill Automatons from Iron River, Michigan to join our alliance. The Ferradermis-led alliance defeated the #2-seeded alliance 2-0 in a best of three series, and then faced the #1-seeded alliance captained by 2202 BEAST Robotics from Brookfield, winner of two in-season regional events, in the best of three finals. The Ferradermis alliance won the first match and then dropped the second but came back strong to take the third with all three of our alliance robots climbing to secure the win.
Ferradermis will next take the field at Mukwonago High School on Sunday, July 24, for MROC – the Mukwonago Robotics Off-Season Competition. This event is free and open to the public and would be a great way for sponsors and potential new team members to see the robots in action and talk with current team members and mentors. Opening ceremonies begin at 8:45 a.m., and the event will run until mid to late afternoon. It should be a great day of competition with 20 robots representing teams from Wisconsin and Illinois, including five teams that won regional championships during the season. If you get a chance, consider stopping in for an hour or two.
Article and Photos Submitted by Laura Masbruch
Whitewater High School Robotics Advisor and Banner Volunteer
lmasbruch@wwusd.org
