Austintown school students, from left, Grayson Bixler, a sixth grader at Austintown Middle School, Jackson Gilmartin, a fifth grader at Austintown Intermediate School, and Mason Ciolli, a fourth grader at AIS, practice with their Lego League robot at a recent regional event at Warren G. Harding High School.

WARREN — FIRST Lego League teams from Mahoning and Trumbull counties came together last weekend to compete at a regional event at Warren G. Harding High School in an attempt to advance to state and national events in 2025.

Twenty teams in fourth to eighth grades from throughout Northeast Ohio competed, including Warren, Niles and Austintown. Frank Bosak, regional partner for the FIRST Lego League event, said the local competitions help teams qualify for a state championship. The regionals take place first, then districts and then the state championship.

“This is the first step the students get to advance. The top eight teams out of 20 advance to the district competition in January at the Champion school district,” Bosak said.

In addition to the local teams, squads from Twinsburg, Solon, Aurora and Willoughby participated.

“This is a great opportunity for our students to volunteer and also compete close to home,” Bosak said.

This year’s challenge for the middle school students is an ocean theme. The robots that are on a table have to complete tasks in a designated period of time, such as lifting the masts on a ship, moving a shark and finding a treasure.

Janet Yantes, a coach for Submarine Titanic Pros, which is one of the four Austintown teams, said her team members were excited about all the research they were required to do for the project. Fourth- and fifth-grade students at Austintown Intermediate School and sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade students at Austintown Middle School compete in the Lego League.

“They had to research a topic, create a solution and program a robot for the game. They had to do a presentation on what they did and information they found and also learn to talk to other teams. There are a lot of public speaking opportunities, research and problem-solving involved both on the table when the robots compete and preparing for the event,” Yantes said.

Team member Grayson Bixler, a sixth grader, said he liked working with the other team members to prepare the robot for the challenge it had to complete.

“The robot has to do various different missions,” he said.

Mason Ciolli, a fourth grader, said he liked building the robot and doing research.

“Programming is the most challenging part,” Mason said.

Jackson Gilmartin, a fifth grader, said he likes building the robot with other team members and working with the coaches.

“The most challenging part is to get the robot to move correctly,” he said.

The team came up with their name because submarines often complete tasks in the water.

WARREN TEAM

Warren’s McGuffey K-8 School, which has competed for many years, once again stepped up to compete in the Lego League. The team made it two years ago to the invitationals in New Jersey.

Team coach Amanda Colbert said one team from the school is made up of students in grades 6 through 8.

Alex Alls, a sixth grader, said she wants to continue on the team and then advance to the high school level in FIRST robotics.

Team member Cameron Colbert, a seventh grader, said members had to look at innovative ways to modify the robot to complete various tasks, including adjusting color sensors on the robot.

Coaches Colbert and Alisha Alls said if the team makes it to the district competition Jan. 11 in Champion, they will go to Kalahari, an indoor water park in Sandusky.

She said many of the team members are active in other sports and school activities, but make the time to practice for the robotics competition.

“Eight of the nine team members play basketball. Some nights we are spending 40 minutes or whatever we can to practice before they go to basketball. They put the time in when they can and we make it work. We are not the typical robotics team,” Colbert said.

NILES TEAM

The 10-member Niles Middle School team, Droid Dragons, is competing for its second year. Their robot is named Flipper.

Lauren Patton and Lisa Scheidegger are the team co-advisers and said there was a lot of research and science project aspects involved. Team member Aurora Lutz, an eighth grader, said she liked the challenge this year and being able to do research and find a solution.

Team member Faith Bionci, also an eighth grader, said the challenge is something each team can work with in getting the robot to complete the tasks.

“There are some complex missions the robot has to complete. I feel they are doable,” she said.

Patton said the team has a few new members, but most of the team is bringing experience to the competitions.

New team member Karina Caimona, a sixth grader, said she has been learning more of what the team does to prepare for the competition. She said the other team members have helped her prepare for the events.

Patton said the team focused on an innovative solution to ease the impact of illegal fishing. She said the team has used innovation, discovery and teamwork.

Bosak said of the 20 teams who competed, eight teams are advancing to the Northeast Ohio District Qualifier at Champion Middle School on Jan. 11, including “Titonics” from McGuffey PK-8 School in Warren and “The Sea Monsters” and “Platinum Pizzeria,” both from Austintown Middle School. “The Brain Busters” from St. Paul School in North Canton took the top spot at the Warren competition.

Other notable awards from the event are:

•    Titonics from McGuffey won the Innovation Project Award, which recognizes a team that utilizes diverse resources for their Innovation Project to help them gain a comprehensive understanding of their problem, have a creative, well-researched solution and effectively communicate their findings to judges and the community. The team’s innovation is a device called the Titonics BENDS Detector, to help scuba divers avoid Decompression Sickness by notifying them when they’re ascending too quickly to the surface.

•    Platinum Pizzeria from Austintown Middle School won the Robot Performance Award for achieving the highest robot performance score at the competition with 370 points and the Breakthrough Award, which celebrates a team that made significant progress in their confidence and capability in at least one of the core areas of the Lego League.

•    Droid Dragons from Niles Middle School won the Rising All-Star Award, which celebrates a team that the judges notice and expect great things from in the future.

•    Lauren Patton from Droid Dragons won the Coach / Mentor Award. Patton was nominated by her students who said, “She demonstrates gracious professionalism, leading by example, and demonstrates that success is not measured by the outcome of tasks but by how others are treated. Her passion and dedication to teaching will have a lasting impact on this team.”