By Amanda Crowl and Haiku Peters, editor in chief and features editor
Saturday, April 24 marks the date of the 15th annual RoboBOTS competition at Meadville Area Senior High. Two Saegertown teams will compete in the competition: “Jekyll,” a team of experienced robotics students, and “Frank’s Friends,” a team of first year robotics students. Advisor George Nahay has prepared both teams for the battle.
“I think that this year we will probably do the best that we’ve done in the past,” Nahay said. “We’ve put a lot of time into it.”
Sophomore Quincy Zook is heading team “Jekyll.” Team members are Logan Fritze, Ryan Yoder, Joey Slye, Henry Shaffer, Connor Smith, Jayden Ishman, Xavier Dillinger, and Madison Eckart. Their bot’s name is Hyde.
Quincy Zook (left) and Joey Slye (right) with their team’s bot, Hyde.
“Our strategy is to try to rush our opponent as quickly as possible. Get in their face, and beat the crap out of them [their robot],” Zook said.
Zook is excited to see the bot’s performance. “It would be really cool to win the entire competition. We’ve definitely been trying to engineer our bot to be as durable as we can,” Zook said. “If we don’t win, I think we could definitely be in contention for best engineered bot. Even if we got that, it would be well worth the time and effort.”
The second team includes members Haiku Peters, Joe Mascitti, Alexa Lynn, Evan Hurley, Levi Connally, Dylan Hulley, Nick Pleitner, and Ignatious Petrie. Their bot’s name is Frank the Tank. Peters is team captain.
“Everyone [second team] is new, so they are learning. I think they’ve learned a lot in robotics one about how to make their bot and everything,” Nahay said. “I hope that they do well in that.”
The first battle starts at 9 a.m. and all battles will be streamed by Meadville Media.
“I’m proud of everyone who’s going, and I’m excited to go on Saturday,” Nahay said. “We’re going to do well.”
