Robowranglers fall shy in FIRST title bid

April 18, 2010
Greenville Herald Banner

Special to the Herald-Banner

ATLANTA, GA. -- Greenville High School's Robowranglers, looking to reclaim their World Robotics title, fell short in the divisional finals at the FIRST International Robotics Championship on Saturday.

The nationally-acclaimed Robowranglers, who won the World Championship two years ago and earlier this year won regional competitions in Dallas and Houston, ended their 2010 competition season ranked among the top 24 teams in the world.

The International competition was staged at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

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 to build a robot in a six-week time period to enter the FIRST robotics competitions.

Participating in Atlanta 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.