Arlington School & Family Magazine January 2017 | Page 17
Lamar
High School
Robotics UIL Competition
by Grayson McGeath
10/31/16
Despite a 12th-place finish in the first AISD-sponsored BEST Robotics tournament, Lamar robotics team
members set their sights on the First Tech Challenge.
“I like this team better than last year,” sophomore robotics member Morgan
Hill said. “We were more organized with the engineering notebook this year.”
Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology Robotics, a relatively new
UIL academic contest category, features the talents of 11 student engineers.
Coaches are Erik Walla, Dennis Pugh and Chris Church.
“After finishing in third place last year with four returning members and
five incoming freshmen, we had high hopes,” Pugh said. “Unfortunately we
did not place in the top two positions to move on to the state tournament in
December.”
Twenty-two Tarrant County-area teams competed at the
qualifying tournament held at Lamar Oct. 22.
“Our robot was working well when we practiced with it
during lunch,” junior Sebastian Mendez said. “But when we
tried to compete in each round, the robot struggled. It was
disappointing.”
Many problems cost the
team some high scores,
including connectivity
and driving issues. The
pressure began to increase
about halfway through the
competition.
“I feel we definitely could
have done better,” Mendez
said. “I feel like we’ve
stepped up this year.”
Arlington School & Family
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