CARROLLTON, GA – The Carrollton Junior High School VEX Robotics team earned a second place finish at state for a stellar performance at the Georgia Middle School State Championship this past Saturday.
Team members who competed were Mallorie Colquitt, Hailey Johnson and Savannah Richie. Although unable to participate at state, Hue Maierhofer also contributed throughout the season.
The team won five of six qualifying matches, earning a fifth-place ranking going into the semifinals. Ali Parker, the STEM teacher at CJHS and sponsor of the team, said the competition can get quite complicated because of its “alliance” structure.
“In a VEX competition, all individual robot teams get paired with another team’s robot so that they are competing two versus two in each match,” said Parker. “In the preliminary rounds, this pairing is randomly generated by a computer program. These preliminary rounds are used for rankings; the top eight seeded teams get to choose their alliance for the semifinal and final rounds.”
The CJHS team was selected by the third-seed team as a partner, creating a strong alliance that made it to the finals. In the third match of the final round, their alliance was edged out by the first-seed alliance, resulting in a strong second-place finish at state for both teams.
“These young ladies have shown a lot of dedication this year and I am really proud of their accomplishment,” said Parker.
