Rancho Santa Fe School FTC Robotics Team moves on to Super Western Regional Championship

On Feb. 21, three teams from the R. Roger Rowe Middle School competed against a field of 36 teams at a regional championship held at Canyon Crest Academy. Throughout the day, the RSF Portal Pounders team (Katherine Arnold, Tyler Bovenzi, Grayson Hudgens, DJ Nelson, Gabrielle Nguyen and Brandon Wong) remained undefeated going into the final alliance rounds.

During the alliance rounds, the RSF Portal Pounders chose its fellow school teammates, the RSF Intergalactic Dragons (James Busby, Conrad Delgado, Aaron Lustig, Lucas Luwa and Justine Yu), as one of its alliance partners. The alliance won its initial matches and moved on to play against the top-seeded team for the championship.

Robot malfunctions during the final rounds cost the alliance the championship, and placed them in second. They were allotted one of only four spots given to move on to the Super Western Regionals. The RSF Portal Pounders will be competing in Oakland on March 27-29 against 13 other western states.

The school’s third team, the RSF Intercontinental Ballistic Ninjas (Erika Adams, Jasmine King, Alex Lillian and Aria Mojaver), competed at four different qualifying tournaments the past several months and succeeded in moving on to the Feb. 21 regional event.

At a Dec. 7 event, the Ninjas received a “Motivate Award.” This judged award celebrates the team that exemplifies the essence of the FTC competition through team building, team spirit and enthusiasm.

For more information about school’s FTC robotics program, contact David Warner at dwarner@rsf.k12.ca.us.