Team 302 won the First Robotics competition in Howell last weekend, earning a trip to the state finals for the victory.
And extra infusion of oil to the ego: the Dragons defeated archrival Team Rush of Clarkston in the finals.
Now, Team 302 will compete in the state championships April 12-15 at the Ryder Center at Saginaw Valley State University.
Team 302 previously took a silver medal at the Lansing District First Robotics event March 24-25.
“The Dragons performance was outstanding, with their alliance score in one of the matches reaching 459 points, which was the highest alliance score for the entire tournament.
“The Dragons were ranked 6th of the 40 teams at the end of the 80 qualification matches,” said Cathy Lawrence, business co-lead for the team and parent of 302 captain Jarod Lawrence.
“In our first semifinal match the two competing Alliances set the 2017 world record for combined scores of 892 points.
In the second semifinal match the two competing alliances broke that record and set a new world record of 897 points.
The Dragons and their Alliance went on to the finals against the first-ranked alliance, narrowly losing in a tie breaking match by 10 points.
“Although we did not win the overall competition we earned Silver Medals for second place,” Lawrence said.

The Dragons also won the Entrepenuer Award, which celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit by recognizing a team that has developed the framework for a comprehensive business plan to scope, manage, and achieve team objectives.
The team also competed March 17-18 at the Greater Pittsburgh Regional First Robotics competition along with 39 other teams.
Most of the teams were from Pennsylvania and Ohio, there were 2 teams from China, one from Hawaii and one from Florida, Lawrence said.
“Competing out-of-state is done strategically to allow the team to work out the bugs in the Robot and get the drive team practice before the Michigan Competitions. Although it took a lot of extra work, time and money, it was worth every penny for the team. The team made it to the semi-finals in Pittsburgh,” she said.
Team 302 held its kick-off in mid-January and the team – between 30 and 40 people including students and mentors – had averaged about 22 hours per week per student working on the project.
But it is not just building one working robot: Team 302 has several different sub-groups – including engineering, computer aided-design, fabrication and pit design – each working on important aspects of the overall competition process.

— Jim Newell