The Mason Robotics team was ranked No. 1 most of Saturday in the district competition but dropped to fifth of 39 teams after developing some electrical problems and sitting out a match.

At the end of the qualifying rounds, GM was promptly picked for the number one alliance. To succeed in this round all three of teams’ robots needed to climb at the end of each match, and Mason was the only member of the alliance consistently able to do this, resulting in elimination in the quarterfinals.

The team won the 2017 Innovation in Control Award, a tribute to the students’ excellent programming skills and a safety award, an area of great improvement for the team. They earned 40 district points toward qualifying for the region championship in April. They compete again in Maryland on March 17-19.