The Robotics Team had a truly exceptional season this year, having gone very far in their competitions.

The Lakeland Regional High School robotics team, Team 223 Xtreme Heat made it to the “FIRST Mid-Atlantic District Championship.” Sophomore Patrick Czeczot tells the Ledger, “The Robotics team performed well due to our very helpful mentors who came by each Thursday and every competition to guide us through the process of building our robot.”

The robot that was able to bring them so far was called “The Mollusk.” The Robotics team built this robot after they brainstormed the goal in the competition and the supplies needed to accomplish it. The team is able to build the robot and acquire its parts from many generous sponsors. Sophomore Audrey Hodges tells the Ledger, “One cool feature is our elevator, which allows us to utilize the higher game pieces.”

The Mollusk was built across the span of two months, from January 6 to March 6, 2025. The robotics team worked hard after school, which shows their commitment to their craft. Senior Emily Grubbs says, “The robotics team has been so good this year because of many dedicated people on our team and our wonderful mentors.”

In their competitions, the team scored high this year. Compared to last year, the team was able to score almost as many ranking points at one event as all of last year. The point in competition is to complete tasks which show your robot is better than others to get points.

However, the Mollusk didn’t come without problems because of the many reiterations that are needed to be made when the robot is in use – like moving its arm up and down, which leads to many fixes and additions to improve it.

Some interesting background about the robotics team: The team was founded in 1999 by Wayne Kelly, Cliff Tanslick, and Don Kactslis at New Brunswick High School. The team name was the Zaiders, but later changed to Xtreme Heat in 2002. New Brunswick High School was sadly unable to continue the program in 2005, so in 2007 Lakeland Regional High School took over, prompting the creation of the robotics team.