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Alpena Robotics Team Looks to Reach World Championships for Second Year in a Row

Alpena High School’s robotics team has had a lot of recent success. Now, they’re hoping for another good result in Standish at their next competition.

They’ve brought back a few members with a lot of experience, including Senior Connor Caplis, who’s hoping they make it all the way to worlds competition for the second year in a row. “It was awesome,” he said. “It was huge and it was just incredible to see some of the world class robots and teams. It was really just a cool experience to go with people that I’ve spent so much time with.”

(Photo courtesy: Barrett Jones)

This year, teams have different tasks they need to complete during the competition compared to last season. “This year’s a little different. This year we have two different game pieces we have to deal with,” Caplis said. “We have a cube and a cone, and we have to pick those up and place them in designated locations on one side of the field and you have to grab them on the other side. At the end you have to balance basically a giant teeter totter thing with your robots.”

For others, this is their first time being with the team. Junior Audrey Decker has been having a great time so far. “I became friends with some people and after hearing about all of their experiences at worlds and going to Houston, I was like this sounds really cool,” she said. “Meeting all the different people in different places, I was like I want to do that. Why not? It sounded like a lot of fun so I said why not.”

At the end of the day, the competition remains friendly for everyone involved. “At competition you at least get to paired with every single time there,” said  Madison Shearer, sophomore. “So you get to be with them and talk with them so you can still build good relationships even if they are beating you.”