Lanesborough Elementary Robotics Team Wins Berkshire Title
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| The Lanesborough Robotic Wyverns, in blue, compete against the Whacky Bots in the championship match. |
DALTON, Mass. – Lanesborough Elementary School Saturday continued its dynasty at the Berkshire Robotics Challenge at Wahconah Regional High School.
Lanesborough's Robotic Wyverns defeated the Whacky Bots, 300-230, in the championship match to conclude a full day of competition.
Twenty-five teams from across the county participated in the 25th edition of the competition sponsored by the Berkshire Innovation Center.
For the third time in four years, Lanesborough's pupils came out on top of the heap.
"They're good kids," LES coach Sean MacDonald said. "I feel like we're doing a pretty good job. We just keep them focused, and that's really the main thing."
"It's a fun job," added Renee Schiek, the Wyverns' other coach.
Lego Robotics allows youngsters to get hands-on experience with coding robots that then complete a series of missions – picking up objects, moving levers, pushing objects – to accumulate points.
"Programs such as the Berkshire Robotics Challenge illustrate what prosperous careers in engineering and advanced manufacturing can be," BIC Executive Director Ben Sosne said in a message to the competitors. "We hope that your enthusiasm and excitement for [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics] doesn't stop and that you are encouraged today to do more tomorrow."
On Saturday, about 250 kids competed in three 2 minute, 30 second rounds. The top two scores for each team were added together, and the eight teams with the highest combined scores moved on to the quarter-finals, where teams go head-to-head until one is declared the winner.
This year, actually, nine schools made it out of qualifying. The Williamstown Elementary School Red Owls (WES entered three teams in the competition) ended qualifying tied with the Berkshire Innovation Center's Perry the Platypus team for eighth place with 400 points apiece.
The WES Red Owls advanced to the round of eight with a 250-175 win and then reached the tournament's semi-finals before bowing out.
Lanesborough Elementary School and the Whacky Bots, a team of home-schooled pupils, qualified third and fourth, respectively, from the qualifying rounds.
The Whacky Bots posted the highest score of eight teams in the quarter-finals. The Wyverns, meanwhile, notched the only 300 scores in the playoffs, hitting that mark twice.
It was the culmination of six months of work for the Lanesborough squad, which started weekly practices for Saturday's event in October.
"We did a couple of weekends, a couple of Saturdays leading up to today," MacDonald said. "The kids just got better and better each practice."
Four members of the LES squad are sixth-graders competing in their second year. Five are fifth-graders who are new to the program, Schiek said.
In any given round, only a couple of handful of team members (and some teams have as many as 10) actually handle the robot. Others cheer them on from the audience.
In the case of the Wyverns, the youngsters themselves drive the decision about who does what.
"They kind of decide themselves on the day [of the competition]," MacDonald said. "I let them figure out who are the best pairs to go to the table to do the best job. … They sort themselves out.
"Then at the end, they figure out who has the hot hand and go with them."
The Lanesborough Wyverns 2026 Berkshire Robotics Challenge team included: Nehe Fatima, Braxton Gladu, Kali Cooper, Bodhi Goodman-Wu, Mason Tudor, Sam King, Mason LeBarron, Aydria Beauchamp and Lucius Scace.
Quarter-Finalists
(Based on initial three rounds)
1. Richmond Robotics, 600 points; 2. St. Mary's Coding Crusaders, 580; 3. Lanesborough Robotic Wyverns, 570; 4. The Whacky Bots (homeschool group), 565; 5. Enginuity 2B (Lenox Memorial Middle High School), 475; 6. BIC Robotic Ratz, 440; 7. BIC-A-Bot, 420; 8. Williamstown Elementary Red Owls, 400 (won one-game playoff against BIC's Perry the Platypus).
Quarter-Finals
Williamstown Red Owls 190, Richmond Robotics 165
Whacky Bots 270, Enginuity 2B 175
St. Mary's Coding Crusaders 255, BIC-A-Bot, 210
Lanesborough Robotic Wyverns 255, BIC Robotic Ratz 180
Semi-Finals
Lanesborough Robotic Wyverns 300, St. Mary's Coding Crusaders 220
Whacky Bots 280, Williamstown Red Owls 160
Final
Lanesborough Robotic Wyverns 300, Whacky Bots 230
