By Kevin Hendricks
Moriarty High School’s newly formed NM-MESA robotics team has returned from the VEX V5 World Championship in Dallas after a remarkable debut season.
The team started strong, winning the VEX V5 NM State Championship in early March, which earned them a spot at the World Championship held May 6-8. In Dallas, the Moriarty team joined 800 top teams from 75 countries.
The team, composed of freshmen, sophomores, and seniors focused on competition and small-scale robotics, built two competitive robots named Atlas and Phil. At the World Championship, Phil achieved a 6-4 winning record, ranking about 350th (Top 3% in the world, top ranked NM bot). Atlas faced challenges, going 1-7 in a tough division and ranking 750th, but the team gained valuable experience.
Earlier in the season, after participating in three tournaments including a win at the Carlsbad Caveman tournament, both Atlas and Phil qualified for the state championship. They dominated the qualifying rounds, with Phil going 7-0-1 and Atlas 7-1 out of 22 teams. In the elimination rounds, the MHS teams joined forces, securing the number one alliance seed and ultimately winning the state championship.