Members of Umatilla middle school robotics teams pose for a photo Jan. 25, 2025, after their teams won to advance to the state championship in March in Hillsboro.

UMATILLA — Three Umatilla middle school robotics teams have advanced to the FIRST Tech Challenge State Championships in Hillsboro.

The Umatilla School District in a press release Thursday, Jan. 30, announced three Umatilla FTC teams at a competitive qualifying event Jan. 25 in Umatilla secured their spots at the state level, with the potential to move on to the FIRST World

Championships in March in Houston.

The qualifying tournament in Umatilla hosted 15 teams from Clara Brownell Middle School, with a total of 85 students demonstrating their skills in engineering, coding and teamwork.

The three Umatilla teams who earned their place at the FTC State Championships are

● Inspire Award Winner: Team 7470 Mystery Bots.

● Winning Alliance Captain: Team 15435 Femgineers.

● Winning Alliance Partner: Team 17366 Giraffe Guardians.

The Inspire Award, the highest honor at the competition, goes to a team that best embodies the spirit of FIRST — excelling in robot design, programming, community outreach and teamwork. Winning this award secured the Mystery Bots a direct qualification to the state championship.

The Winning Alliance Captain and Winning Alliance Partner titles are awarded to teams that perform exceptionally well in match play and collaborate effectively in alliance strategy. The Femgineers and Giraffe Guardians demonstrated strong performance throughout the tournament and worked strategically within their alliance to win the final playoff match and advance.

The three Umatilla teams advancing to state will compete against 48 other middle school and high school teams from across Oregon. This event will determine which four

teams will qualify for the FIRST World Championships.

“I am incredibly proud of all the teams who competed this year,” Middle school robotics teacher Caden Sipe said in the press release. “Our top teams showcased exceptional dedication, spending countless hours after school refining their robots and perfecting their presentations. Their hard work truly paid off, and we can’t wait to see them excel at the state championship.”

Additionally, seven other awards went to teams that demonstrated excellence in various aspects of the competition:

● Design Award Winner: Team 17368 Lab Rats.

● Motivate Award Winner: Team 28838 Autobots.

● Control Award Winner: Team 7474 Deewalt.

● Innovate Award Winner (Sponsored by RTX): Team 7498 Shed Boys.

● Connect Award Winner: Team 17366 Giraffe Guardians.

● Think Award Winner: Team 7497 The IDKs.

● 2nd Place Inspire Award Winner: Team 7498 Shed Boys.

To learn more about each award, visit www.firstinspires.org/robotics/ftc/awards.