After the state final in NJCU on March 15, the Mecha Lions concluded their meetings for VEX High Stakes, or so they thought.. Just three days later, on March 18, the team received an email that because of their skills score during the tournament hosted in PCSST, the Mecha Lions had qualified to compete in the VEX JROTC National Championship. 

The JROTC National Championship will take place in Dallas Texas, parallel to the VEX World Championship, where students from 75 countries have been invited to compete with and against one another, for a chance to win the season title. Flight and hotel bookings are currently underway, and while JROTC and the school are funding most of the trip, the students are also selling snacks almost daily to fundraise for team shirts and additional expenses that may come up. Thank you to Frank Reynoso, Vanessa Ramirez, Ashly Guillen, Edwin Marchena, Jordan Barahona, Christopher Bueno, and Isaac DeDios for assisting with the snack sale everyday. Also, a special shoutout to Ryson Dennett-Davis for bringing in more snacks that students like to increase sales. 

The Mecha Lions are also preparing a new robot again, this time to take to the grand event. The team has welcomed Eliam Martinez and Suhaib Ghaleb on board, who have managed to incorporate pneumatics into the design, for a better intake system that will hopefully allow the robot to score more points. Coaches Memon and Lukowiak are also preparing the team for their interview, which will take place next Tuesday, on April 8th. 

While all the students will not be able to go to the national championship, the whole team is hard at work, staying back after school almost every day to prepare for our biggest tournament till date. We wish them the best of luck, and hope they do really well! 

– Coach Alizah G. Memon