Turtle Robotics Advances to State Championship

1/17/2020

Chatham Hall

On January 11, the Tutu Turtles Robotics team traveled to Salem, Va for the Central FTC Qualifier held at Roanoke College.

Facing off against teams from throughout Virginia, Chatham Hall won three of their five qualifying matches. The team was then selected by the #1 seeded team to join their alliance for the elimination rounds. The # 1 alliance was undefeated in the elimination rounds and won the robot competition portion of the meet. Dora Amezaga Mendoza ’22 and Andi Fiani ’20 alternated driving the robot, while Quiana Rodriguez ’21 operated the arm. The drive team was assisted by Ellie Larsen ’22 as team Coach, Camille Neal-Harris ’21 as team strategist, Whitney Byington ’22 as pit captain and human player, and Kristina Shen ’20 as programmer and captain. For their outstanding efforts, the Tutu Turtles clinched a spot at the Virginia State Championship.

The Tutu Turtles were supported throughout the day by Chatham Hall alumnae Kathryn Waters ’14 and Tracy Lively ’84, as well as Rector Connell. Team mentors Molly Thomas and Dan Waters were impressed by the outstanding work of their team, with Thomas commenting, “It was great to see the girls interacting with other teams and the judges explaining our building process and the abilities of our robot. We also felt supported by the community with the Rector and alums cheering the team. ” In addition to progressing on to the state championship, the Tutu Turtles also received 3rd place awards from the judges for the design of the robot and the Think Award, given for their exhaustive documenting of the building and programming of the robot. The Tutu Turtles will compete at the Virginia State Championship in Mechanicsville, Va on February 22.

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