Bearbotics finishes season with Milwaukee win

Electric, nervous energy mixes with the sounds of excited chants from the stands and flows into the pit; if this regional match does not go well, the team will only have one more chance to qualify for the next competition.

After placing last in their competition in Peoria on March 16, through 18, the Lake Zurich Robotics Team worked even harder and kept their heads high.

To recover from their loss in Peoria, the Bearbotics team had to rip wire from wire in an attempt to salvage their robot and validate the amount of time and effort they dedicated to designing, building, and programming during their six week build season. Feelings of disappointment were heavy in the robotics classroom as they dismantled their creation.

“After the first competition everybody’s spirits were a little bit down. We spent six weeks of our lives building the robot, so it was kind of disheartening to see that it wasn’t successful,” Danielle Vezensky, junior vice-president of Robotics Club, said. “After we got back to school we disassembled the robot we spent six weeks working really hard on in 30 minutes and were just basically left with a big robot carcass.”

Despite the results of their first regional competition, the team was determined to do better at the next competition, which took place from March 23 through 25. All of their hard work finally paid off when they received the results from their last match of the season.

“We went to the UW[-Milwaukee] stadium and we were actually able to score 18 out of 54 so we improved incredibly,” Kevin Steibel, senior Robotics Club president, said. “While we were a part of the top 24 that would usually be chosen to progress to the playoffs, we ended up not getting picked for any of the alliances for the playoffs and we sadly did not receive any awards.”

However, making such a significant improvement in such a short amount of time could be considered a prize in itself that Vezensky and Steibel say they owe to the cooperation of the team as a whole.

“Going from last place in one competition to being in what should’ve been in the top teams the following week was definitely something to be proud of,” Steibel said.

The many hours of hard work and problem solving that occurred both in the pit and at home eventually paid off, even if the team did not make it to the next level of competition, he said.

Like the other seniors on the team, the second regional match at UW Milwaukee was the last competition he would ever attend as part of the Robotics team. Steibel says that the last regionals experience, including the loss in Peoria, was a very positive way to end his final season in robotics.

“I can proudly say that we made something that was very interesting and that did its job when the time came,” Steibel said. “I’m incredibly proud of my team and more than anything, I know that I can leave the club in the hands of the remaining members next year and Bearbotics will only go up from here.”