East’s very own Robotics team, 2616F Frightening Lightning, came in first place at the state championship competition and is moving on to the world championship. The state championship took place in the Cherry Hill East cafeterias on Saturday, Feb. 21 and 28.

Five teams from East attended the state championship, and each team consisted of four to eight students.

When competing, teams of two robots went against two opposing robots in an attempt to score hollow cubes onto PVC posts found on a 12 by 12 foot field.  The goal was to score more than the opposing team.

Jason Fisch (’16), a builder from Frightening Lightning and the team member who controls the robots, said, “We came in first… we also got the excellence award which is the highest award that they give out.”

Fisch said that the team’s greatest competition was Ranney School from Tinton Falls, New Jersey, which is the school that East faced off against these past two Saturdays.

Nikola Kosaric (’16) said, “[Jason and I are] both builders, we pretty much make the physical changes to the robot. We have people that program, people that work on the notebook, [and] people that scout for us.”

Fisch and the rest of the Frightening Lightning team, which includes six students, will be traveling to Louisville, Kentucky from April 15-18 to compete for the third year at the world championship.

“There [are] around 500 high school teams from around the world, from over 23 countries,” said Fisch.

The best of luck goes out to Fisch, Kosaric, and the rest of the 2616F Frightening Lightning Team members as they compete in the world championship.