Manchester High's Robotics Competition a Success

On Saturday, Jan. 14, Manchester High School hosted the VEX Robotics Gateway Competition with 33 teams from Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

"This event keeps growing, states Chris Prytko, Manchester’s Robotics Coach. "The Connecticut VEX competitions have grown from just one a year and a few teams to five competitions and more teams joining every year! It’s very exciting to actually see one of these engineering competitions. It also takes a lot to put a competition on, thank you for all that helped!"

The intense competition started around 9:30 a.m. with four robots competing on each of the two main fields. Over 43 elimination rounds were played before the final elimination rounds. While the main fields were being played, teams participated on a “Skills Challenge” field testing the robot, their driving skills and programming skills. Team 4478A from Mausk High School did a very impressive job of winning both the Robot and Programming Skills challenges!

"Anything can happen," said Greg Kane a volunteer and Technology Education professor at Central Connecticut State University. "If we played the same game tomorrow, we most likely would have different teams winning. It’s an incredible learning experience!"

The Tournament Champions were Worcester Technical High School, Mansfield Middle School, Gus Robotics, Inc from Meriden CT. The Team Excellence Award was given to Danbury High School, team 5150D for outstanding overall performance in all areas of the competition. 

Manchester High Schools robotics team, Geared Up, competed with three robots.

"They did an outstanding job with the Freshman team really stepping up their game," Prytko said.  

However, Manchester High's team was eliminated in the quarter finals.