Spartronics dove deep to attain its top competitive performance in eight years.

The Bainbridge High School FIRST Robotics team placed 34th out of 50 teams in the Pacific Northwest District Championship in Cheney April 5. Washington and Oregon, the PNW District, plan to send its top 22 teams and their 125-pound robots to Houston, TX, where they will compete against about 600 teams from districts across the country April 16.

“Our students put their heart into this season, and it shows. From building EPHYRA (the robot’s name) to refining our strategy at every match, they’ve demonstrated true resilience, creativity and teamwork,” Spartronics coach Austin Smith said.

Each year, FIRST Robotics introduces a game or challenge that is themed around real applications for robots in science and engineering fields. This year, the theme is ocean exploration, and the game is called “REEFSCAPE.”

During the competition, robots score coral, harvest algae and attach to a barge to “return to the surface,” competing to collect the most points in two minutes and 30 seconds. There’s a 15-second portion in which the robot is autonomous, but the other 135 seconds are driver-controlled.

Student FIRST robotics teams design, program and steer their robots with guidance from coaches and professional mentors.

In keeping with BHS’ Greek warrior mascot, the Spartronics robot EPHYRA is named after the water nymph, a daughter of the ocean and sea titans, but the word also refers to the larval stage of jellyfish. The acronym stands for “Elevated Pacific Healer Yielding Routes Autonomously.”

“EPHYRA is optimized for coral collection and scoring while maintaining algae displacement capabilities,” the team wrote on its website. “Our autonomous routines enable fast, consistent scoring cycles with minimal human intervention, allowing our drive team to focus on in-game strategy rather than basic maneuvering.”

This was the team’s top performance since 2017, when Spartronics placed first at the Auburn Mountainview Competition.

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