CLEAR LAKE CITY, TX – High school students from Tompkins and Cinco Ranch have teamed up to take first place in the state VEX robotics competition hosted by the Clear Creek Independent School District in Clear Lake City.
Tompkins High School students make up the award-winning VEX Robotics team 4583X Sushi Warriors of Samurai Robotics. They teamed up with Polaris Robotics Team 24626Z from Polaris Robotics at Cinco Ranch High School to create an impressive club. The Texas VRC High School Region 3 Championship was held on March 3rd and 4th, 2023.
Sushi Warriors 4583X won the Texas 2023 State Championship at the regional competition.
Members of Sushi Warriors 4583X:
Bilal Mirza (Junior): Main builder and driver
Aadit Sahgal (Junior): Programmer, autonomously monitors during games
Daniel Niechwiadowicz (Junior): builder, co-driver/driving coach, main scouter
Omar Jilani (Junior): Builder, Secondary Scouter
William Ferrer (Junior): Builder, Secondary Scouter
Sanjeev Baskaran (sophomore): builder, secondary scouter
In addition to winning the state championship, Team 4583X had a phenomenal season, winning Skills Championships, Tournament Championships and Judges Awards.
Polaris 24626Z won 5th place in Skills and also qualified to compete in the Vex Worlds.
Members of Polaris 24626Z
Dimitris Kalafatis (Senior): Programmer
Puneesh Kapoor (Senior): Driver
Delaney Tao (Senior): Builder and notebook worker
Angelo Reyes (second degree): master builder
Stevie Oberhofer (freshman): Master builder and notebook worker
Arjun Somavarpu (Novice): Builder
During the season Polaris 24626Z also won the Excellence Award, Skills Champions and Tournament Championships.
Both teams will compete against 800 high schools from 40 countries at the upcoming VEX Robotics World Competition April 25-27 in Dallas.
VEX Robotics is a global program with more than 20,000 teams from 50 countries competing in more than 1,700 competitions worldwide.
Competitions are organized throughout the year at local, state and national levels and the winners compete in the VEX Robotics World Championship sponsored by the Northrop Grumman Foundation and technology giants such as Google, NASA and Tesla.
“Both teams are the definition of endurance,” said team advisor Humzah Mirza of the Texas A&M WHOOP Robotics team. “They are the smartest and most talented group of students,” he said. “Both teams were able to compete for their spots at the VEX Robotics World Championships in one of the most challenging and competitive seasons I’ve ever experienced and these guys got each other prevailed and fought to the end. Mentoring these students was fun, to say the least!”