From April 6-8 our team competed at the FIRST Chesapeake District Championship, with the 59 best teams from the district.  With a tough schedule of opponents, we were only expected to win one match.  Instead, we won six. Throughout the event, we encountered many complications which caused us to work together to deal with them. One example was when an opposing robot accidentally pushed another robot into electronics panel.  We quickly rebuilt it, tested it, and won the next match.  In addition, we had an unexpected catastrophic collapse of our arm mechanism 10 minutes before another match. We had to balance the repair with preparing for the probable situation of not being able to compete. We fixed our arm just as we were coming onto the field. As before, we won that match. We left the event learning much from other teams as well as our own experiences, hoping to visit the district championship next year. 

On March 24th we attended our second qualifying event in Timonium, Maryland. The team performed well, ending the qualification matches in 13th place. During playoff selections, we earned a spot as the captain of the eighth seeded alliance.  In the playoffs, we led an unlikely run with the help of our outstanding teammates 4541 (the Cavineers) and 9033 (the Baltimore Bolts).  We beat the third and fourth seeds before losing to the fifth seed in the semifinals.  We ended the event fourth overall, earning additional points toward qualifying for the district championship.  Topping off the weekend was our award for Excellence in Engineering. Both our award and unlikely playoff run secured us a place in the district championships for the first time since 2018. We left Timonium happy, thinking of things to improve for the upcoming district championship.

On March 17, we competed in our first robotics event since 2020; in Alexandria, VA.  We didn’t start very well but made steady improvements. By the end of qualification matches, we had won half of our matches. Throughout the event, the team made routine repairs to the robot to keep it in working condition. During alliance selection (for the playoffs), another team recognized our strengths and chose us. During the playoff matches, our robot suffered a catastrophic malfunction. After our experienced pit crew fixed our robot, we played one more match. Unfortunately, we lost, and our alliance was eliminated. Overall, our entire team performed superbly.