From March 21st to 23rd, Fossil Ridge’s robotics team competed in Denver’s Magness Arena. Previously, the team competed in Florida against 30 different schools; Denver’s 50 created a more chaotic competition, however, Ridgebotics was prepared finishing 3rd individually and 4th overall.

“Our robot was incredibly simple, It just went fast and never really broke down, which put us ahead of a lot of teams,” stated Ridgebotics captain, Ryan Brittingham.

Fossil’s robot included a fixed-angle shooter compared to the many others that used variable-angle shooters and were likely to break down.

Numerous components play important roles in these competitions. The team consists of a diverse set of members all having different roles: mechanical lead, programming lead, electrical lead, business lead, marketing lead, media lead, and spirit lead. All of these are crucial to the success of the robot and its performance.

[I was] running back and forth from the pit to the stands trying to get batteries to the scouting team,” explained Oliver Cossins, electrical and mechanical lead.

“Our robot was surprisingly reliable at the competition, which is a good thing.” Cossins continued stating that he didn’t feel as much pressure as he usually would.

 “I was expecting for us to be top seven or top eight, but not 3rd,” said Zach Wilke, programming lead. 

Feeling confident after their performance at the Regional, Wilke exclaimed,“ Next year we will win.”

Ridgebotics prepared months for the Colorado Regional and although they would have loved to qualify for nationals, top two, they were pleasantly surprised with their 3rd place finish.