By Megan Clapsaddle & Mary Reynolds

Special to the Leader

Team TORC, the Oxford High School robotics team pulled out a fantastic win this past weekend at the Waterford District Event held at Waterford Mott High School.

The competition spanned two days (March 17 -18) with 39 teams from around the state bringing robots to compete. TORC started off strong on Friday winning eight out of the nine matches they played. Saturday’s matches went very similar for TORC and the team ended the qualifying matches in 3rd place with a record of 10 wins and two losses.

After the qualifying matches were completed, TORC was then able to pick our alliance partners and move onto quarterfinals. Being captains, TORC chose Team 27, RUSH, from Clarkston and Team 4779, RoboSapiens, from Marine City.

In the quarterfinal matches, our alliance won the first match by a score of 452-235, lost the second 272-304, and pulled out the rubber match by a score of 360-235. In the Semifinals TORC and alliance won both of their matches and made it to the finals.

In the finals of the competition, TORC and partners faced Team 33, The Killer Bees, from Auburn Hills (currently ranked #1 in Michigan), Team 67, The HOT Team, from Highland (currently ranked #7 in Michigan) and Team 5090, Torque-Nados, from Trenton. The first game of the match, the TORC alliance scored 465 points, one of the highest scores in the country, and beat their opponents by 175 points. The second match was a close game that was filled a lot of suspense.

In the end, the TORC alliance prevailed with a score of 273-223. Along with winning the event, TORC also won the Gracious Professionalism Award. This award is voted on by teams at the competition and recognizes a team for outstanding sportsmanship and continuous professionalism, in the heat of competition, both on and off the field. TORC has won this award at both of the competitions they’ve attended this season.

With the win at Waterford, TORC will now be heading to the State Championship at Saginaw Valley State University in April. Team TORC #2137, www.torc2137.com, is a FIRST Robotics team, is competing in its 11th season and is currently ranked #9 in Michigan.