The Krypton Cougars, FRC Team 2539, recently won its first district competition title in its 15-year history. The milestone achievement occurred at the 2022 FIRST Mid-Atlantic District competition at Hatboro-Horsham High School in Horsham on March 5 and 6.
The Krypton Cougars is a high school robotics team, based in Palmyra, that consists of students from Palmyra and Hershey, along with homeschooled students. The team competes in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition against other high school teams from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.
At the 2022 Mid-Atlantic District competition, the Krypton Cougars got off to a rough start in Saturday's qualifying matches and ended the day with a record of 3-4 and a ranking of 20th out of 35 teams. After regrouping Saturday night, the Cougars had five consecutive victories on Sunday to end the qualifying matches in sixth place with a record of 8-4 and the second-highest offensive power ranking (OPR). The Krypton Cougars was selected by the No. 1 ranked team to join its three-team alliance for the playoffs.
In the quarterfinals, the alliance had two consecutive wins in the best-out-of-three matches to advance to the semifinals. The first match in the semifinals saw the alliance lose 87-94. Facing possible elimination, the alliance came back with 109-76 victory and the highest score of the competition. A win in the next match secured its place in the finals. The alliance swept the finals with two wins against heavy defense.
In addition to winning the competition as a member of the alliance, the Krypton Cougars won the Innovation in Control Award for its automatic vision-guided ball pickup system, finished the weekend with a combined record of 14-5 and placed second overall. The team was guaranteed a spot in the 60-team district championship, to be held at Lehigh University from Thursday to Saturday, April 7 to 9.
Prior to the championship, FRC Team 2539 will continue to improve its robot at its build site at 318 Taxiway Road, Palmyra, to prepare for its next competition in Seneca, N.J., on Saturday and Sunday, March 26 and 27.
New members, mentors and sponsors are welcome. The team meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 to 9 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. throughout the year, but more frequently during competition season.
More info is available at http://www.team2539.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/FIRSTTeam2539/. The team can be contacted at kryptoncougars2539@gmail.com.
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