Vikotics finish 40th in northwest district

From left, Vikotics gather in Portland; Christian Burt, Logan Diets, Ethan Cook, Jacob Maurin, Drake Davis, Patrick Orfe, Josh Heithe, Danielle Reeve, Braden Schaffer, Jocelyn Whitsell, Joey Link, Cortney Finch, Kristian Gibler.

Under the roof of Memorial Coliseum in Portland April 7, the Garfield/Palouse Vikotics advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2018 Northwest high school robotics championships. On the line was entry into nationals/internationals in Houston when the team's robot, running in the autonomous mode of the competition, drew a penalty.

It was the 15th time the machine had done the same task, but this time it did not do it the same way.

With a placement in the top 24 in grasp, instead the team dropped to 40th place and out of the running for Houston.

“It was unbelievably close. The robot had never done that before,” said Mark Sawyer, mentor and FFA teacher at Garfield/Palouse High School. “Had that not happened we would have moved on.”

The team's 40th place finish for the northwest district (of 154 teams in Washington, Oregon and Alaska) culminated in Portland, following two previous contests in March, in Yakima and Spokane Valley.

With a roster of 14 students, three mentors and Sawyer, the Vikotics completed their third season.

“This is probably the best robot we've ever built,” Sawyer said.

Vikotics mentors for 2018 were Andrew Nelson, Dave Tharp and Kris Gibler.