Spartronics earns best finish in its history at World Championships
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, May 5, 2026
Bainbridge High School Spartronics Team 4915 recently competed at the World Championships in Houston, where they achieved the highest finish in program history. Outlasting two days’ worth of qualification matches among 80 teams in their division, Team 4915 won their division, made it to the final matches, where the top 8 alliances competed and ended their season in a match where they lost by a three-point margin, 691 to 688.
About 36,000 people attended the championships, with up to 20,000 intently watching the final matches. Team 4915 won their division, Milstein, alongside alliance partners Citrus Circuits from California and the Roboteers from Illinois, both of which are historic, world-class teams.
In robotics, alliances are formed in teams of three, and that group goes on to either win together or lose together. Three teams finish in first place, three finish in second place, and so on. Four alliances, however (12 teams) were eliminated after two matches, and Spartronics Team 4915 was one of them.
“Our ranking is somewhere in the bottom half of the top 24 teams in the world, which may not be a very precise number, but by any metric, it’s a showing to be extremely proud of, and the furthest we’ve ever made it as a team,” said Team 4915 coach Austin Smith. “Spartronics is truly among the top teams in the world.”
For the playoffs, Team 4915 was asked to play defense, something out of the ordinary for the BHS student driver and operator of ARTEMIS. “We knew the robot was capable of it, and [our driver and operator] had watched plenty of other defense-capable robots do it well, so they knew exactly what to do,” said Smith. “We wound up as a formidable defense bot with two great high-scoring offense bots.”
Smith shared that the team had formidable programming talent on the field, with students adjusting auto routines on the fly and repairing just about any problem with simple hand tools and tireless grit.
“This year marks the most successful year in our team’s history, no matter what yardstick you choose,” said Smith. “We won more matches, had a higher district ranking than ever, more blue banners, and made it further at Worlds than any previous year. That’s significant because Spartronics has always drawn from a deep pool of incredibly talented students with formidable skills. We were always a great team, but the results this year are beyond anything we’ve experienced before.”
