Collegiate Robotics Team Wins District Championship

TORCH 5804, as the team is known, was part of a three-team Alliance that collaborated in the final rounds of the competiition to garner the points needed for the District Championship title. The other schools forming the Alliance were George Mason High School from Falls Church, Va. (#1 seed) and the RoboBees, a team comprised of students from seven schools in the St. Mary's County, Md area.

In addition to bringing home the big win, Collegiate's team received the High Ranking Rookie Award.

Collegiate entered the competition ranked 16 out of 132 teams in the entire district, which includes schools from Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Fifty-eight of those teams competed today.

Daniel Bartels, Collegiate's Middle and Upper School STEM Coordinator, mentors the Robotics team, along with Upper School science teacher Greg Sesny. He indicated just before they departed for Maryland that TORCH 5804 was prepared to do well, and had enough Collegiate energy to shore them up:

"In the 12 years I’ve done this, I've never seen this type of support from faculty, staff and the student body," Mr. Bartels said. "We've appreciated it."

Today's win secures TORCH 5804's spot in the robotics World Championship later this month, in St. Louis. The team will decide soon whether to participate.

Congrats, Cougars!