On April 4th-6th, the Lawson High School FRC Robotics Team, "The Law," traveled to Lee's Summit North High School to compete in the Greater Kansas City Regional Competition. Members participating in this event were Will Mason, David Doolittle, Dallen Barnett, Mason Henson, Wyatt Covey, Nathan Nix, Gideon Dressler, Drake Gettings, and Sophia Swope.
There were 42 teams at this competition, including several winners from previous regionals this year. The team performed well throughout the competition, even after having to rebuild severe damage to the robot's shooter mechanism caused by being pushed into one of the field elements. At the end of qualification matches, the team had a record of 8 wins and 4 losses and was ranked 12th out of the 42 teams.
During alliance selection on Saturday afternoon, "The Law" was the 1st team chosen to be a part of the 5th-seeded alliance in the playoffs.
As part of the number 5 alliance, the Lawson team fought hard but lost their first match against the number 4 alliance, which achieved a record score for the competition at the time. The team went on to win against the 8th-seeded alliance before losing to the 2nd-seeded alliance in the 3rd round by a score of 102 - 91. The second loss eliminated our alliance from the playoffs.
While this eliminated the team from the possibility of qualifying for the Championship in Houston, the team still has the chance to qualify for the MO/KAN State competition(May 31st-June 1st). Qualification for this event depends on our final overall ranking, which will be announced later this month.
In addition to the competition experience, Drake Gettings and Gideon Dressler had the opportunity to operate the on-field video cameras used for the live stream.
This year's team met and exceeded several goals this season, showing the ability to build a robot that can perform offensively and defensively, garnering praise from many of the top-tier robotics programs at the competition.
The team will now prepare for the possibility of competing in the MO/KAN State Competition and setting goals for next season.