Bellarmine VEX Regional
This past weekend, Bellarmine College Prep held its 3rd annual VEX Robotics regional. 51 teams from throughout the Bay Area flocked to Sobrato Theater to compete in the largest Northern California VEX Regional of all time. Thanks to Bellarmine’s generous funding, we were able to offer a registration price of only $25, much less than the usual $80. As a result, many more teams took the opportunity to participate in a competitive VEX regional.
Throughout the first semester, all 7 Cheesy Poof teams worked hard to design, assemble, test, and program their competition robots in preparation for this tournament. By January, our collective success was evident as team 254 won every VEX tournament that it attended this season (Merrill F. West High Regional, All Star Championship, Vanden High Regional, Pan Pacific Championship, and Cal High Regional).
In preparation for the tournament on Saturday, students and parents of team 254 gathered Friday afternoon to set up the robot pits in Liccardo Center and the tournament fields in Sobrato Theater. Bellarmine directed three competition fields (including one practice field in Liccardo), one of which was generously donated by our friends at Cal High in San Ramon and another by the president of the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation and a founder of team 254, Jason Morella.
The tournament officially began at 7:30 AM on Saturday when all 51 teams piled into Liccardo and settled into their pits. By 10 AM, the judges had inspected all teams and the 4 hour block of qualification matches and skills challenges ensued ahead of schedule. Due to the size of the tournament, eliminations were run with 10 alliances of 3 instead of the usual 8. Team 254 was represented in alliance #2 with 254E, 254H, and 254D and in alliance #4 with 254B and 254A.
Both alliances breezed through quarterfinals but alliance #2 hit a setback as they lost the 2 out of 3 round in semis. By the final round, alliance #4 faced 3129A, 1935A, and 1000B. With 3 matches and dangerously close scores, 254B, 254A, and their partner 5203P took the tournament victory. Team 254H also won the Programming Skills award for the highest scoring autonomous route.
Tournament Awards
Champions: 254B, 254A, 5203P
Finalists: 3129A, 1935A, 1000B
Excellence: 3129A
Programming Skills: 254H
Robot Skills: 1000A
Amaze: 563
Judge’s Awards: 920A, 1935A
Team 254 would like to thank all our parents, students, volunteer judges, field coordinators, and our MC, Mark Leon, for making this tournament possible. Special thanks also go out to Mr. Gerhard Mueller, our tournament coordinator, for successfully running the Bellarmine VEX regional for the 3rd time in a row. Congratulations to all the teams for a great showing on Saturday and for making this a great tournament!
Team 254 in royal blue after the tournament. Go Poofs!
Update: Bellarmine’s VEX tournament was featured in the Local News section of the January 17th San Jose Mercury News. More pictures are available online at http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_17108626?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com&nclick_check=1.
