Courtesy Photos Alpena’s High School’s FIRST Robotics Team 5055, Volts Squared, competed in districts last weekend in Standish, fishing second and winning the Creativity Award for the most creative robot design of the competition.

STANDISH — Alpena High School’s FIRST Robotics Team 5505, Volts Squared, participated in the Standish-Sterling FIRST in Michigan tournament this past weekend, finishing their second district tournament.

Team 5505 went 9-3 in qualification matches and finished ranked ninth at the event. Following qualifications, Team 5505 joined an alliance with the fourth-ranked team from Essexville (E-Ville Empire) and the 22nd-ranked team from Pigeon (Team 9245 Laker. Volts Squared worked with E-Ville Empire last year at the Escanaba tournament and at the world championship in Houston.

At Standish, this third-seeded alliance made a lot of noise in the playoffs before dropping to the lower bracket in the double-elimination playoffs. Team 5505 won the lower bracket and proceeded to the finals where they were defeated by Team 302 (The Dragons from Lake Orion), Team 1506 (Metal Muscle from Flint, MI), and Team 6533 (BeaverTech from Beaverton).

Ultimately, the thrilling best-of-three final resulted in a silver medal at the event for Alpena’s Team 5505. Despite the heartbreaking loss in the finals, the team won the Creativity Award for the most creative robot design at the competition.

After performing well in Escanaba and at Standish-Sterling, Alpena High School’s robotics team is on track to play at the state championship and is likely to compete at the World Championship in Houston.