In what team members and coaches felt was their best chance in program history to make a run at Worlds, the Rockhurst robotics team did just that.
“It was the best that the Jesubots ever performed,” assistant coach Andy Wilcox said. “We had never been selected to be part of an alliance at Worlds before. We made it to the semifinals in our division.”
Worlds, formally the FIRST Championship, is the culmination of the robotics season. It brings roughly 600 teams from schools from 50 countries to Houston to compete. More than 30,000 attend the event.
“It’s an event on a scale that is rare anywhere, but especially at high school,” coach Tim Nendick said. “Imagine a full Kauffman Stadium, but [they’re] there for a high school event.”
Rockhurst’s team, the Jesubots, went 5-5 through qualifications, but performed well enough to be chosen to be part of an alliance. This meant they were among the last 32 teams standing within their division. This also meant they moved from the qualifications part of the competition, where their alliance members changed from match to match, to the semifinal portion, where they would compete with the same alliance members the rest of the way.
As part of the eighth-seeded alliance, the Jesubots competed against the top-seed in the first round of the elimination bracket (which is actually a double-elimination format). That alliance included the defending world champions. Rockhurst’s alliance dropped that matchup, 160-90.
They re-grouped and went on a run.
In their next contest, they faced the fifth-seeded alliance and beat them by five (114-109).
Then, they went up against the third-seeded alliance and topped them 119-98.
That brought about a rematch with the top-seeded alliance. This time around, despite statistically being a significant underdog, the Jesubots and their alliance teammates pulled the upset, 155-121.
“We say ‘Rock Don’t Quit’ a lot – but between going undefeated in our KC regional eliminations, and eliminating the world champs despite being in the lower bracket – we made it clear this wasn’t a fluke and that our team has earned the ranking and recognition,” Nendick said.
The Jesubots’ run ended in the semifinal round of the elimination bracket when they fell in a closely-contested match to the second-seeded alliance, 157-146.
Despite the loss, the team was ecstatic about advancing to Round 5 of the elimination bracket.
“I am really proud of our placement,” senior Elias Manis, who piloted the robot, said. “Our placement puts us comfortably in the top 100 teams, out of almost 4000, which is the best our team has ever done by a long shot.”
Specifically, advancing as far as they did meant the Jesubots were among the top 72 finishers.
All in all, the trip to Worlds proved a positive experience.
“I enjoyed the event a lot from the competition,” freshman Brian Gillcrist said.
It also was a fitting end to what was a really strong robotics season.
“A lot of students put in A LOT of time to make this robot happen–in CAD [Computer-Aided Design], and building, and in programming–and that takes grit and focus,” Nendick said. “That work ‘in the weight room’ really paid off in our robot, which never suffered a major mechanical failure in the 49 competitive and 13 practice matches we played.”
“Mr. Nendick and I are proud of how the boys spent the entire season improving,” Wilcox said.
Returning members of the team are already looking forward to next year.
“I am excited to go to Rockhurst next year and excited to work on our new robot when the season starts,” Gillcrist said.
Robotics is a unique competition in that the game literally changes every year. The rules, parameters and goals are created from scratch. The Jesubots will learn the challenge they’ll have to solve next season on January 4, 2025.
