The Hybrid Hornets, Kearsley’s robotics team, finished 10th out of 38 teams in a competition at Kettering University last weekend.

The Hybrid Hornets, also known as Team 5150, went 7-5 in their 12 rounds of the FRC District Competition 1 on Friday, March 3, and Saturday, March 4.

Senior Dylan McIntire knows the benefits of doing well in this competition.

“The beginning was really rough. We were restricted at first,” McIntire said. “I was glad to see that the robot was able to qualify. It felt good to know that a simple design can still work very well.”

In addition to its 10th-place finish, the Hybrid Hornets also won the District Event Finalist Award.

This was the opening FIRST competition for the season.  FIRST, which is For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, offers robotics competitions around the nation.

This year’s game was Steamworks. Each team has to place gears on a peg lifted by a human player or score “fuel” into a container called a boiler.

The team was selected for the second alliance, which included the Titanium Tigers of Fenton and the Steiner Steel Storm of Rudolf Steiner School of Ann Arbor.

The alliance defeated the seventh and third alliances in the quarterfinal and semifinal, respectively. But they were swept in the final by the first alliance.

The Hybrid Hornets held the highest Offensive Power Rating of 105.11 points per match.

The next competition is in Marysville from April 6 through April 8.