On March 4th, 2017, Cherry Hill East hosted the New Jersey state championship for VEX Robotics. Competing were the best of the best from across the state, including teams from East. The teams competed in the latest challenge called Starstruck where their robots were tasked with retrieving foam stars and stuffed cubes, and tossing them over a fence to gain points. Additional points were also awarded for the ability of the robot to lift itself up onto a pole.

East teams, 2616D (Sammy Breslau (‘17), Dimitrios Fifis (‘19), Sean Roth (‘20), Humzah Durrani (‘19), Yianni Fifis (‘20), Ethan Nahom (‘19), Emma Roth (‘18), and 2616H (David Kell (‘17), Eric Kim (‘17), Salman Fakhri (‘17), Elizabeth Qian (‘17), and Jake Brooks (‘20), performed amazingly, placing themselves in the 2nd place alliance, and earning a spot in the VEX world championships. Team 2616G, with Zach Dilks (‘17), Keith Babitz (‘17), Kevin Babitz (‘17), Huy Vo (‘17), Jessie Wu (‘17), Sofia Benedetto (‘17) and Ryan Bach (West ‘17) also qualified for a spot at the VEX World Championship for earning the Excellence Award, given to teams who go above and beyond, being the “Top All Around Team,” with excellent robot performance, extremely organized and neat notation, and advanced work on their robot. East team 2616E earned the Think award, given for their intensive autonomous programming. East team 2616H also won the Design award, given to teams with impressive robot design.

East robotics member and world tournament qualifier, Humzah Durrani (’19), said, “It’s exhilarating when you’re in the finals, because you feel like you’re going to win, and then you are winning, and then you start losing, and then you win.”

“Robotics is almost like a sporting event in that it’s very competitive… But you’re also dealing with kids that have an ability and an intelligence to be able to build robot,” said Mr. Joe Dilks, the advisor of the robotics club.

East overall had an amazing victory, and three of its teams will now move to the world championships, held in Louisville, Kentucky.