County students currently competing at VEX World Championships

A group of Warren County School District students are working through the qualification round at the VEX Robotics World Championships in Dallas, Tx.

The team includes Lincoln Olsen, Liam Ferry, Donald Anderson, Mason Moore, Mateo Madril and Philip Nickerson as well as advisor Arthur Anderson.

They’ve called themselves “Team 52575C – “I can’t pronounce that!”

VEX Robotics is a worldwide competition and all of the participants that take part are given the same kit to work from.

Not only do they have to build the robot but they also have to detail the construction steps and will be grilled on that process by judges at competitions.

This year’s game is called “Over-Under.” Each team’s robots have to move items around the course, scoring

points by carrying them over — or placing them under — obstacles.

Each match is two minutes. The first 15 seconds require that the robot be coded to run itself. The last 1:45 are driver controlled.

The competition started Thursday night when the squad dropped its first match 78-64 before bouncing back with a 120-57 win Friday morning. The team was paired with a team from Akron, Oh. in that match against a pairing from Ireland China.

They then dropped their next two matches before picking up a win partnered with a team from Texas against teams from Puerto Rico and Canada.

Two more qualification matches were set for later in the day on Friday in addition to two more Saturday morning.

As of Friday afternoon, the squad was ranked in the 20s out of 82 total teams.

They are in the science division with nine other teams from countries including Ireland, Switzerland, China and Cote D’Ivoire.

It’s been a months-long effort with local and regional competitions. A second place finish in the Western Pennsylvania Championships last month punched their ticket to Texas.