The Caney Creek robotics team competed last Saturday, ending their long run.  

The robotics team competed at Willis High School last saturday. They placed second out of 13 in the morning portion, but lost after the robot malfunctioned.

Robotics coach Angela Crawford said that this match would determine their chances of advancing to region.

“We were in the middle of our qualifying rounds when the robot started having mechanical issues resulting in us being taken out of contention,” Crawford said. “We had a successful season overall, however when it mattered most our robot just did not perform like it needed to.”

Assistant coach, Ryan Bowlen, said that they did not do as well as they hoped.

“We were in the lead and fell to second right as we were into the tournament portion, but then when we went into the tournament portion we had some malfunctions with the robot and it ended up costing us advancing to the next level,” Bowlen said.

He also said that this year’s team is better at the coding system from a programming perspective.

“The kids learn a lot more than they do just typically in a classroom setting because, number one, they’re interested in it,” Bowlen said. “They’re showing that because they want to be there. They have to go learn new material for when they’re about to do new things so it leaves them to be a little bit more invested in the work.”

Junior John Nguyen has been part of the robotics program for one year.

“(We made it into the top four) because of hard work and teamwork,” Nguyen said.

Robotics coaches are still unsure as to whether they will or will not compete at UIL.