Hayden Kull

Reporter

ZANESVILLE - The Zanesville High School robotics team has qualified for the world competition for the sixth consecutive year.

Rick Mohler, the robotics coach, said Zanesville has qualified for the world competition every year the school has had a team. However, he added more area schools now have robotics teams so he is proud of the continued success Zanesville has experienced.

The team will be competing at the VEX Robotics World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky from Thursday to Saturday. Mohler said there will be about 500 teams in the competition.

The team is made up of six students and each student has a specific job. Senior Christian Sheline is a builder, sophomore Alex Pinson is a builder, designer and driver, senior Christopher Sheline is a builder, senior Rory Gamble is the head scout, sophomore Alec Mealick is a scout, and sophomore Austin McCoy is the head programmer.

"We want to win an award and do our best to represent the school and the community," Christian said.

The team and Devil Bot 6.X, their robot, will be competing in the game Starstruck. There is a robot on each side of the field with 24 stars and four cubes on the playing field. The goal is to throw the objects on the other side of the field to earn points.

Being involved in the robotics program has shaped what some of the team members want to do after high school.

While Christian is a senior, this was his first year on the robotics team. He said he wanted to get involved because he's attending Ohio University for mechanical engineering in the fall.

"I have always liked science, math and engineering and I've always been interested in this but I didn't get involved until this year," Christian said. "I wanted to get my foot in the engineering field because I'm going on to do that in college and after that in a career field."

Pinson, who has been involved with the robotics program since he was in middle school, said the program has influenced him.

"I'm looking to do something in engineering after high school," Pinson said. "I help with the design process and it will be a stepping stone into the engineering and design field."

As previously reported in the TR, the John McIntire Elementary sixth-grade girls robotics team will also be competing on the world stage in the Vex IQ Challenge beginning April 23.

hkull@gannett.com

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Twitter: @haydenkull5