Moving on up

GHS Robowranglers advance to FIRST championship after claiming regional title

April 4, 2010
Greenville Herald Banner

Special to the Herald-Banner

HOUSTON -- The Greenville High School Robowranglers robotics team advanced to the FIRST Championship next month in Atlanta following its victory Saturday at the 2010 Lone Star Regional at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

The nationally-acclaimed Robowranglers, who won the World Championship two years ago, last year were eliminated in the quarterfinal round at the FIRST International Championship.  Two weeks ago, they opened their competitive season by winning the Dallas Regional competition at SMU.

At the Houston meet, the Robowranglers formed the winning alliance with the RoboNauts of League City and the CyberWolves of Killeen.  The Robowranglers also received the Coopertition Award and the Xerox Creativity Award.

The Robowranglers will next travel to the FIRST Championship Event in Atlanta April 14-17.

The Robowranglers are sponsored by Innovation First Inc., L-3 Communications and the Greenville Independent School District.

The team is comprised of students and teachers from GHS and staff members from the two corporate sponsors.

Each year, volunteer engineers team with the high school students oo build a robot in a six-week time period to enter the FIRST robotics competitions.

Participating in Houston were students Rae Arnold, Alex Cartier, Allison Chitwood, Colin Doby, Elise Follett, Parker Francis, J.R. Gutsch, J. Andrew Harrison, Jordan Henderson, Cody Horton, Connor Horton, Katie Kroncke, Randy Larsen, Mark Mahrer, Josh Matlack, Colton McCain, Connor Mulkey, Keri Porter, Dillon Row, Nathan Ruprecht, Jimmy Vaughn, Ryan Villarma, Steffen Villarma, Gwendolyn Ward, Charles Wensel, Trevor Wooten, Kaleb Wright and Amy Yznaga.

Adrienne Emerson, George Kroncke, Vanessa Pope, Corey Chitwood, Paul Copioli, Brandon Martus, Ricky Torrance, Ricky Quinones, John V-Neun, Armando Corrales, Chris Follett, John Hodapp, Chris Horne, Steve Maxwell, Ken Stroud, Monty Wineinger, John Yznaga, Kevin Morris, Jim Francis and Joe Maher serve as engineer mentors.