Twenty teams from 11 Charles County Public middle and high schools competed in the 2015 Southern Maryland VEX League Robotics Challenge held Feb. 7 at the College of Southern Maryland’s (CSM) La Plata campus. The challenge is split into two levels of competition – one for middle school teams, and one for high school teams. The VEX League is sponsored by CSM and its science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) partners to support teams in Calvert, Charles and St. Mary’s counties.
Eight Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) teams qualified to compete in the VEX Robotics Maryland State Championship. Teams that earn the Excellence, Tournament Champion, Tournament Finalist and Design awards at the regional level advance to the state event. The middle school state competition is Feb. 28 at Hereford Middle School in Baltimore County. The high school state competition is scheduled for March 8 at Sollers Point Technical High School, also located in Baltimore County.
The Electropanthers team from Piccowaxen Middle School received the Excellence award among competing middle school teams. This is the highest award a team can receive and recognizes overall team excellence in dedication, devotion, hard work and team work. The Excellence award is also given to the team that finishes first in the league rankings at the conclusion of all qualifying events. In the VEX League, participating teams play in 15 matches during three ranking sessions, of which the final session is held at the regional level.
Student members of the Electropanthers teams include seventh graders Ahryel McManhan and Cameron Miskell, and eighth graders Andrew Fan and Jarrett Mulloy. Team coaches are Sandra Chisholm, a technology teacher at Piccowaxen, and Joseph Fan, a Piccowaxen parent.
The Electropanthers team also earned the Tournament Champion award, in which they competed in an alliance with the Mechanical Madness team, also from Piccowaxen, and the Iron 6 team from General Smallwood Middle School. As the Tournament Champions at the middle school level, all three of these teams will compete at the state event. Members of the Mechanical Madness team include Piccowaxen seventh grader Kyle Shymansky, and sixth graders Will Anderson, Reece Leonard and Sydney Robertson. Chisholm and Fan also coach this team. The Iron 6 team includes Smallwood eighth graders Dylan Abell, Lavell Kenney and Alex Thompson. Team coach is Jeffrey Gruszecki, a technology teacher at Smallwood.
Based on how the challenge is structured, more than one team can be named Tournament Champion. This year’s challenge, titled “Skyrise,” was divided into qualifying rounds, team alliance selection rounds and elimination rounds in which teams maneuver their robots in a 12-foot by 12-foot square field. Teams work together in alliances to attain higher scores than their opponent alliance by programming their robot to build a 6-foot-tall vertical tower.
Two teams from John Hanson Middle School, the JHMS Gold team and the VEXCELLENCE team, earned the Tournament Finalist award. A team from Mattawoman Middle School, the SMSL Hackers, also earned the Tournament Finalist award as part of a team alliance. This award goes to the top two runner-up alliance teams, which also compete at the state level.
Members of the JHMS Gold team are Hanson eighth graders Collin Gamble, Mikayla Hall, Sean Huber and Hailey Stern. Hanson’s VEXCELLENCE team includes seventh graders Lizzie Daniel, Cody Flerlage, Chris Moreno and Christopher Rand-Crawford. Both Hanson teams are coached by Daniel Meltsner, a technology teacher at Hanson. Students on the Mattawoman team include seventh graders Jabari Johnson, Ricardo Santos and Susanna Wynne, and eighth grader Kaya Shepherd. Jeffrey Wester, an art teacher at Mattawoman, is the team coach.
At the high-school level, the Angle Warriors team from La Plata High School earned the Tournament Finalist award as part of an alliance with two teams from Calvert High School. As a Tournament Finalist team, they will compete at the state competition. Student members are seniors David Beaton, John Hungerford, Matthew McElhaney and Kyle Morgan; juniors Sarah Dawson and Carolyn Gillespie; and sophomore Tara Cecil. The team coach is Garrick Baker, a technology education teacher at La Plata.
Additionally, a team from St. Charles High School advances to the state high school competition after receiving the Design award at the regional event. The Design award is given to a team that demonstrates an organized and professional approach to the design process, project and time management, and team organization. To be eligible for this award, teams must submit an engineering notebook to the judges for review.
Team members include freshman Hunter Donn, Francisco Monzon and Pio Samillano; sophomore Michael Bouyett; and juniors Jason Bowman, Rory Burke, Justin Robinson, Bobby Smith and Timothy Sprouse. The team coach is Ryan Novitski, a technology education teacher at St. Charles.
Teams from Benjamin Stoddert Middle School, and Maurice J. McDonough, North Point, Thomas Stone and Westlake high schools also competed in the event. A total of 55 teams from middle and high schools in the tri-county area participated in the competition.