The Melrose iRaiders VEX robotics team consists of 11 students in 7th and 8th grade at MVMMS. This past weekend they competed in their 5th qualifying tournament of the season at the Walsh Middle School in Framingham. In their first four tournaments they were battle tested competing against local high schools. The Framingham tournament was a Middle School only tournament. The iRaiders were the #1 seeded team for most of the tournament. In the last minutes of the qualifying rounds, they fell to the #2 seed before entering the afternoon elimination matches. As alliance captains, they picked to be their alliance partners the #3 seeded team from the Locke Middle School in Billerica. During a brutal quarter-finals match, they were nearly disqualified because another team called for the MVMMS team to be re-inspected. Failing an on-field inspection, the team called for a 5 minute time out to perform emergency surgery on their robot. Recovering from the set-back, the team went on to sweep their remaining matches and become the Tournament Champions. After competing three weekends in a row, the team has a break going into the Southern New England Championship on February 25th in Framingham.
The team also competed:
BU tournament in November Ranked 9/14 High School teams
Hopkinton tournament in December, Ranked 9/18 High School teams – and Tournament Champions
BU tournament in January, ranked 5/24 high school teams Tournament Finalists
Hopkinton tournament in January ranked 16/20 high school teams
Team members Marissa, Joe, Jeffery, Alex, and Aiden
The team members Jeffery, Aiden, Alejandro, Marissa, Bridget
Team member Colin and Bridget