Blackwater Robotics Team competes at event
Published 5:37 pm Thursday, March 28, 2019
- From left to right are coach Brandon Yanna, mentor Davis Moore, Anthony Bunn, Dalton Virtue, Ashanti Staten, Pacey Virtue, Ayanna Hudson, chaperone and mentor Carolyn Hurdle, mentor Hank Mummert, Skylar Bunn, mentors Kyle Johnson, Clare Mayo, Joseph Trentacost and Stephen Flournoy.-- Submitted

The winning alliance. From left to right are Team 6882 – Fahrenheit Robotics of Fredericksburg; Team 1599 – CircuiTree Robotics of Atlee High School of Mechanicsville; and Team 1610 – Blackwater Robotics of Franklin High School of Franklin. — Submitted
By Brandon Yanna
PORTSMOUTH
The Blackwater Robotics team competed March 16-17 in the FIRST Chesapeake-Hampton Roads event held at Churchland High School in Portsmouth.
After the 12 qualification matches, the team was ranked fourth out of 37 teams.
In alliance selection, the number 2 seeded team, Team1599 – CircuiTree of Atlee High School in Mechanicsville, selected Blackwater and Team 6882 – Fahrenheit Robotics of Fredericksburg, to create the 2nd seed alliance.
In the quarterfinals, the alliance took on the seventh-seeded alliance of Team 977 – CometBots of Halifax
High in South Boston, Team 1793 – Aviators of Norview High, and Team 1908 – ShoreBots of
Northampton High School in Eastville. The second seeded alliance defeated the number 7 alliance in two straight matches with scores of 75-35 and 64-53.
In the semifinals, the Blackwater alliance went against the number 3 alliance of Team 6334 – Aluminati of Midlothian, Team 2998 – VikingBots of Thomas Jefferson High in Richmond, and Team 5279 – Bionic Eagles of Altavista High School. Again, the number 2 alliance defeated the third-seeded alliance in two straight matches with scores of 87-53 and 72-60.
In a surprising finals match-up, the Blackwater alliance went against the number 4 seeded alliance of
Team 2106 – The Junkyard Dogs of Goochland High School, Team 1413 – Skrappy of Bluestone High
School, and Team 5546 A.R.T. of Appomattox Regional Governor’s School. The number 2 alliance
won the event in two straight thrilling matches with scores of 80-67 and 83-61.
Blackwater Robotics will be competing at the FIRST Chesapeake District Championship on April 11-13 at George Mason University in Fairfax.