Montini Catholic's Robotics Team (82997A) won the top honor on Saturday, March 11th at the VEX Illinois State Championship Tournament on the Millikin University campus in Decatur. The Bronco team won the Excellence Award which VEX describes as "the highest award presented in the VEX Robotics State competition." The Excellence Award is presented to a team that exemplified overall excellence in building a high-quality robotics program. "This team is a strong contender in numerous award categories and a top performer at the State tournament."

It was earning the Excellence Award that qualified 82997A ("A") for the VEX Worlds 2023 Tournament which will take place at The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Texas on April 25-27. Eight-hundred teams from the USA and over 30 other countries will gather to compete for top honors in the largest high school robotics competition in the world.

Montini's "A" team also won the 2nd Place Trophy in the Robotics Skills Challenge which is the single robot competition that is used to rank robotics teams worldwide. The team achieved a score of 305 which currently places them 200th out of almost 6,000 teams worldwide - placing Montini's Broncos in the top 3% of all VEX teams this season. "We've got our work cut out for us to get that score up even higher in the weeks ahead before Worlds," said an ecstatic Pete Farina '87, Montini Catholic's Technology Director and Robotics Coach.

"The judges at State confirmed what I knew in my heart to be true all season," added Farina, "82997A is the all-around best VEX team in the State of Illinois! Their determination to make it to Worlds 2023 was truly remarkable and ultimately unstoppable! They have made it to the highest level of high school robotics competition in the entire world and they have received more honors and awards than any robotics team in Montini Catholic history!" Farina in his memo to his team members asked them to "Take a moment to savor this victory and all that you have achieved. Our journey together this season is not yet over! We have one more destination, one last mountain to climb together!"

Montini's Robotics "A" team has celebrated many milestones this season, the first of which was qualifying for the State Competition in December - the earliest qualification the team has enjoyed since competing in VEX. At a VEX tournament on March 5th they made history once again by being ranked #1 in the State and earning the Amaze Award for having the highest scoring robot at the tournament! During the same tournament, Robotics Team 82997B "B," who took 2nd place in skills and were ranked #8 in state! 

Coach Farina and his team are now focused on VEX Worlds and will spend many after-school hours in the next six weeks working on an updated robot design. "Words can't express how happy we were to get the news of the team's success," said President Jim Segredo. "We are so proud of these students. Their hard work and drive for success are incredible. We can't wait to see what they get done in Dallas!"

The members of Montini Catholic Robotics Team 82997A are:
Angela Banov '23 (Lombard), Thomas Cyze '23 (Willowbrook), Anjay Dhir '24 (Lombard), Matthew DiSimone '23 (Bensenville), Conor Kaefer '25 (Lombard), Will Prater '23 (Naperville), Wyatt Prater '25 (Naperville), Alex Silveyra '23 (Carol Stream), Matthew Silveyra '25 (Carol Stream) and Hayden Surrette '25 (Downers Grove)

The members of Montini Catholic Robotics Team 82997B are:

Dhruv Patel '24 (Bolingbrook), Damjan Pasic-Hernandez '24 (Lombard), Michael Pogorelec '24 (Woodridge), Frank Flores '24 (Bloomingdale) and Issy Jaojoco '25 (Bolingbrook)

Image above:  Robotics Team "A" after earning the Excellence Award at VEX State:  l to r: Alex Silveyra, Angela Banov, Will Prater, William Cyze, Anjay Dhir, Conor Kaefer, Hayden Surrette, Matthew DiSimone, Wyatt Prater and Matthew Silveyra