Photo courtesty of Jason Marr. Camas/Washougal FIRST Robotics team members control Wallace, the group's robot, at the Washington state competition on March 18.

The Camas/Washougal High School FIRST Robotics team was seeing more 1s than 0s at the Oregon Memorial Coliseum over the weekend.

The team came in first place at the Oregon FIRST Robotics competition on Saturday, just a week after securing first place at the Washington State tournament in Seattle.

The team, which goes by Mean Machine #2471, is mentored by three US Digital employees.

Team mentor Mohit Abraham said the group wasn’t planning on another win; the Portland competition was just an opportunity for practice.

Roy Thornley, another team mentor agreed.

“We’re still kind of mind-boggled,” Thornley said on Monday. He attributes the win to the students’ talent and spirit, although he thinks the team also had a “good robot.”

The team will compete in the national competition in St. Louis in April.

Before shipping out, the team will reassemble an egg-launching robot for an Easter egg hunt in Crown Park in Camas. That machine is no slouch, either.

“We had to limit [the robot's throwing power] otherwise the plastic eggs would break,” Abraham said, noting when at full tilt, the bot can chuck eggs about 40 feet.

Team 2471 from Camas and Washougal high schools competed at the Washington State FIRST Robotics competition on March 19.

CREDITS
Video shot and edited by Jordan Thompson