The Hybrid Hornets participated in the Advanced World FIRST Championship in St. Louis from April 26 to April 29.

Senior Dylan McIntire, the last member from the Hybrid Hornets’ original team, enjoyed his experience at the World competition.

“It was amazing. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing and I got to go twice,” McIntire said. “I got to meet people from Taiwan, Israel, Hawaii, and Australia. Our team made a name for itself among teams from around the world.”

The team was 4-6 at the end of the qualifying rounds, and it had an Offensive Power Rating of 145.27, placing them fifth in the ranking for top OPR.

The early rounds were good enough for the the Hybrid Hornets to advance to the quarterfinals. They were chosen to be a part of the 7th-seeded alliance and lost in the quarterfinals, leaving the competition ranked 42nd out of the 68 teams in their division.

McIntire noticed that many teams were from Michigan, and they all encouraged each other.

“One-fifth of the teams there were from Michigan,” McIntire said.

Junior Maikayla Josling thinks the team will continue to do great things.

“I think next year is definitely going to be interesting,” Josling said. “We’re losing our founding members. But their legacy will definitely help us continue to do big things.”

Justin Karram, junior, thinks that the team will continue to grow.

“I feel like we’ll do better next year and grow more because more people seem to be interested in robotics,” Karram said.