The FTC Robotics Team qualified for regionals after competing at the Central Texas FTC Qualifier, Saturday, Jan. 31 at Connally High School.

“I’m just really excited that all of our hard work paid off, and we’re gonna be able to keep going through,” sophomore Cami Poole said.

Only eight of 24 teams competing advanced to the next level of competition. The team of Poole, James Anyabine, Kelton Arms, Brandon Berkel, Eli Mitchell, Andrew Neely and Jacob Pangonas, spent several weeks creating a robot and then making adjustments after each contest.

For the FIRST Tech Challenge competitions, the robot is paired against another school’s robot and has to complete certain tasks during a short amount of time in a 12-by-12 square arena.

The team, which is in its second year, will now compete at regionals in San Antonio, Feb. 20-21.This is the first year the team had advanced to regionals.

“We are all excited and we are preparing for regionals, because we are facing all the best schools in Texas,” Pangonas said.