Wisconsin held its first official FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) State Championship at Brookfield East High School from April 17-19. Whitewater High School’s robotics team Ferradermis was one of 36 top high school teams invited to vie for the title in a highly competitive and highly cooperative weekend of matches with 12 invitations to the World Championships in Houston on the line.
On the way to the event, the team took time to tour Milwaukee Tool on Friday afternoon, getting a personal tour from two Milwaukee employees who mentor other FRC teams and another Tool employee with a Whitewater connection. The state tournament began with some wild weather on Friday evening, sending teams to take shelter during tornado warnings for over an hour and cancelling all evening practice matches.
Once matches started, the Ferradermis robot CEO was led onto the field by Driver Mason Genung, Operator Erison Dreksler, Human Player Vivian Harris, Technician Owen Taylor, and Drive Coach Mark Zimmermann. CEO’s performance has been improving steadily all season, especially in autonomous mode with some great work by Lead Programmer Ace Hudec, programming team members Emily Bruns, Carson Miller, and Colby Long, and Programming Mentor Andy McKenzie.
Teams took a variety of approaches to preparing for the championship with some even building brand new robots. Others, like Ferradermis, simply made small improvements. After each team had played their 12 qualification matches, Ferradermis was ranked #8 out of 36. The Whitewater team increased their offensive power rating, which reflects the average point contribution of a team to an alliance, from 68 at the end of their last competition in La Crosse to 140 by the end of the state competition!
After a wild playoff alliance selection process which saw many teams make risky moves, Ferradermis became the captain of the #6 seeded playoff alliance. They again invited Team 171 The Cheese Curd Herd from Platteville to join their alliance, as they had in La Crosse just two weeks before. Their second selection for an alliance partner was Team 6223 Arsenal of Engineering from Menomonee Falls. In the first round of the playoffs, the Cheese Curd Herd’s robot became broken and was unrepairable in time for the second match. Ferradermis was forced to call in a backup robot which turned out to be Team 4021 igKnightion from Luther High School in Onalaska. Ferradermis’ new alliance partner struggled to stay functional in the second match, and the alliance was eliminated from the playoffs. This also ended the team’s chance for a third consecutive trip to the World Championships in Houston.
Statistically, Ferradermis ends its season ranked #11 out of 71 teams in the state of Wisconsin, #418 out of 2944 teams in the United States, and #499 out of 3724 teams in the world, a top 13% statistical world ranking.
Students had many opportunities over the weekend to gain valuable experience in leadership and communication. Rae Breisath, Georgia Esch, and Zoey Ambrose led the team’s scouting alliance with Team 2062 CORE from Waukesha and Team 6381 Red Raider Robotics from Sheboygan. The seniors made a true effort to help younger students step into new roles, even having Freshman Ambrose announce the team’s picks during alliance selections. The data for alliance selections was provided by scouts Asher Downs, Alex Fletcher, Julian Rennells, Johan Servin, Letty Trautman, Paxton Wilson, and Mily Zeferino-Hernandez, among others. Kudos to these students for also supporting the scouting alliance led by Team 6421 WarriorBots from Muskego who were shorthanded on Saturday and needed help throughout the day filling scouting shifts using a completely different scouting system.
Chacha Binagi, Elora Wildermuth-Breitzman, Sam Raupp, and Alex Nelson all took on the role of Student Ambassador, providing tours to VIPs. Binagi and Raupp also stepped up to host one of the FIRST Lego League Teams competing in the Udder Chaos competition being held in the same building on Saturday. Safety Captain Nina Heim spent the weekend securing the pit, while Jayden Kehrer and Preston Miller took shifts working on the robot. Team Media Representative Cooper Housel accompanied the drive team to all matches to gather photos and video. Binagi, Heim, Wildermuth-Breitzman, Esch, and Rennells sang in the team choir that performed the National Anthem during opening ceremonies.
The team and coaches Laura Masbruch and Mark Zimmermann would like to thank all of the mentors that accompanied them to the event and helped oversee various aspects of the team. Thank you to Tori Breisath for volunteering as Pit Administrator, Kevin Housel for overseeing scouting, Kat Dunham for helping out in the stands, and Quinn McKenzie, Matt Doherty, and Andy McKenzie for helping with the robot in the pits.
Ferradermis will celebrate the end of the season on April 22 with their annual ice cream social and awards program. Thank you to Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream and the WUSD Robotics Booster Club for donating the goodies. You can catch the team this summer at several City Markets, the Whitewater Storytelling Festival, and in the 4th of July Parade. Their next competition will be the Mukwonago Robotics Off-Season Competition (MROC) on July 25 and 26.