MEGAHURTS Take 2nd in 2009 FRC Regional

Today was nothing short of amazing for team Megahurts at the 2009 St. Louis Regional Competition for FIRST Robotics. The event, these past three days, is a culmination of the hard work of thousands of high school students and their mentors. On the first Saturday of this year the 2009 competition “Lunacy” was announced and everyone had six weeks to design, build and ship the team’s robot.

Team 2219 competed in over 20 practice and qualification matches over the last three days, making it to the quarterfinals for a shot at the championship match; along the way to the quarterfinals team #2219 met with the mayor of St. Louis and countless others, teaching them about Brehm Preparatory School and the Team. They also handed team #16, the top ranked robot in the competition a tie in the final qualification match. That was the only match they did not win outright this week.

Our team was aligned with two other robots for the quarterfinals and the tournament, team 2775 (St. Louis: Rookie of the Year from Tennessee) and team 2041 from Chicago, Illinois. This group formed the 3rd seeded alliance. Our alliance dominated our quarterfinal rounds making it to the semifinals. There we met the 2nd seeded alliance and handed them a pair of losses that propelled our alliance to the Championship round where we faced team 16 and their alliance. This was the first time in the team’s short history that we made it to the tournament bracket and making it to the finals was amazing.

We played hard but the top alliance was too much for us… we took second place for the competition, a truly amazing feat that none of us expected three months ago when we started our robot. Or team returns to Carbondale tonight, tired but thrilled and proud of what we were able to accomplish under a tight budget and tighter time restraints.

That's it from St. Louis...Thank you to everyone who joined us this year and supported our team.

Megahurts Media Team