Despite the fact that the Spartronics Team 4915 won’t be going back to the World Championships in St. Louis for a three-peat, this year was arguably the most successful season in Spartronics history, garnering more awards and honors in a single season ever – all student led.

At the Pacific Northwest District Championships this weekend, Spartronics and their HUGE 14″ Omni Wheels scored another major victory, winning the FIRST Robotics Competition “Creativity Award” presented by Xerox. Remarkably, Spartronics won a major award from the judges at every competition the team competed in this season, won a District Event Competition and had a student and a mentor recognized for their contributions to Spartronics by FIRST. This season marked the first time Spartonics had a student, Clio Batali, nominated to the Dean’s List.

Among this season’s awards and honors:

Pacific NW District Championship:

• “Creativity Award” from Xerox, celebrates creativity in design, use of component, or strategy of play. The judges were hugely impressed with our innovative 14″ Omni Wheels.

At the Mount Vernon District Event:

• Clio Batali, our team’s Co-Captain and Drive Team member, was named a Dean’s List Semi-finalist.

• “Gracious Professionalism Award” recognizes our ability to work with other FRC teams and to compete on and off the field in a manner that reflects this exceptional FIRST standard.

At the Glacier Peak District Event:

• “Engineering Excellence Award” from Delphi, celebrates an elegant and advantageous machine feature.

• District Event Champions: our team won the finals as part of an unusual four-team winning alliance.

• Kevin Hawkins, one of our founding mentors, was nominated by students for the Woodie Flowers Award.

Clio becomes the first Spartronics member nominated to the FIRST Dean’s List

Final Ranking + Most Memorable Moments

In addition to the awards — and cheering our friends from 4911 Cyberknights as they won one of three Chairman’s Awards in Portland – there were some incredible highlights:

• Spartronics finished 43rd out of 158 teams in the PNW District this year, topping some of the best teams – historically – in FRC.

• Andy Baker, founder of the firm that supplies the most robot parts to FIRST teams, AndyMark, sought us out to see our 14″ Omni Wheels calling them the “Biggest Omni Wheels I have ever seen!” He loved them.

• Don Bossi, President of FIRST Robotics, came by to see the team and was also impressed with our custom-designed and custom-built wheels. He challenged Aila to tell the team to get “50 percent girls next year!”

• The FIRST game announcer during one of our matches said of Robby’s driving, “That was the best defensive move of the tournament!,” as Robby clipped another top robot just before it shot, causing it to drop its boulder.

While FIRST Stronghold – the FIRST Robotics Competition’s 2016 game – turned out to be the toughest ever on all robots, including Spartronics own ARES, the life lessons Spartronics learned this year from fixing all the problems we encountered will benefit our students — and mentors — for many years, if not decades, to come.

District Championship Video

Our own Finn, a volunteer with Washington FIRST this year, was one of the main videographers and editors of the finale film at Portland. Check out all the highlights here, including several shots of Spartronics and our wheels!

More Photo Highlights

FIRST President Don Bossi checks in about our growth in girls

Robby and Kolin proudly show our “Creativity Award” as both played a major role in the creation of the Omni Wheels

Aila and Jon make their Omni Wheel pitch to the Judges and the result was another award!