San Ramon Tournament Results
On December 11th, 254D and 254H traveled to San Ramon to represent Bellarmine at its fifth tournament of the season. After technical difficulties with the field and limited time, the teams played 3 qualification matches leaving 254D with a 1-2 record and 254H with a 2-1 record. The 6th seeded alliance went on to pick 254D and lost in the quarterfinals to a dominant alliance carrying 254H. The third seeded team, 3129A, picked 254H and 4804A and ended up winning the tournament. However, the winning did not stop there. 254D, after being knocked out of eliminations, was determined to win Robot Skills and scored 72 points. The tournament and robot skills wins bring home two more qualifications for World Championships leaving the Poofs with 5 spots to Worlds for 254A, 254B, 254E, 254H, and a newly added 254D.
On another note, all vex robots needed to be done by the end of this semester. Although every robot is competition-ready, many teams are making a few repairs and fixes to their robots after being in competition in the past few weeks. In the heat of this competition, the JVN Design Challenge entry never got finished. Lack of concrete deadlines and motivation lead to the downfall of this project.
In light of increased competition for Vex, Derrick Dominic was able to contact NASA employee, Dr. Wendy Holforty in order to obtain Vex pneumatic kits for the team. Due to liability concerns and respect for Dr. Holforty’s parts, a release form must be made before any teams can borrow these parts. Some teams have already expressed interest in the kits and it will be exciting to see what they are used for.
The goal by the end of the week is to have all the Vex teams prepared for the winter break to make the changes and fixes they need to. The parts locker will be open on Monday, and probably Tuesday. The kits will be handed out near the end of the week after forms get filled out. There might also be an overall team design / team meeting for the Vex participants over break for those interested in learning and discussing more about the team’s goals coming next semester.
-Roshan
