Courtesy photo A member of the Holy Gears FTC Robotics team worlds with one of the team’s robots to help it complete a task over the weekend.

PELLSTON – The Holy Gears FTC Robotics team from All Saints Catholic Middle School in Alpena delivered another outstanding performance at the Pellston Qualifying Tournament this past weekend.

Thirty-five teams from across Michigan competed for a spot at the Michigan FIRST Tech Challenge State Championship.

The Holy Gears’ robot performed exceptionally well during Saturday’s qualification rounds, finishing fourth overall out of 35 teams, and their alliance went on to earn third place in the playoff rounds.

In addition to their on-field success, the team was awarded the Innovate Award, which recognizes teams whose robots demonstrate exceptional industrial design, engineering excellence, and a professional approach throughout the entire design process, rewarding out-of-the-box thinking.

The Holy Gears robot was noted as one of only two robots in the tournament capable of completing the challenging end-game task of parking two robots within an 18-by-18-inch space–an advanced maneuver which the team achieved by elevating their robot to allow an alliance partner to park underneath.

The Pellson event marks the second high scoring state qualifying tournament that the team has competed in this year. The team previously secured their spot to the State of Michigan Championship in November after earning Second Place for the Inspire Award, the highest honor presented in the FIRST Tech Challenge. The Inspire Award recognizes teams who model the core values of FIRST through innovation, engineering excellence, collaboration, outreach, and Gracious Professionalism.

The Holy Gears will now advance to the Michigan FTC State Championship. The team is currently ranked 211 in the world out of more than 7000 teams.