Citrus Circuits wins world championship

By Ashley Han,
Bluedevilhub.com Editor-in-Chief–

The Davis High robotics team, Citrus Circuits, took first place out of 600 high school robotics teams from around the world at the FIRST Robotics world championship on April 25. The championship was held in St. Louis and lasted three days.

The students had anexciting experience at the competition.

“It was amazing […] We got to compete with and watch the best robots and the best teams compete, and it is always a humbling experience,” junior Megan Yamoah said.

Yamoah is the mechanical design lead for Citrus Circuits. As a Dean’s List Finalist, she was able to attend the Opening Ceremonies and a luncheon with hundreds of other finalists and the 20 FRC and FTC winners.

Yamoah says that she had a feeling the team would win.

“I personally felt the win in the semifinals of Einstein before we made our big comeback. But, I did not admit anything until the beginning of our first finals match because at that point, I knew we had an advantage in can grabbing and we just had to play out game,” Yamoah said.

Junior Shreya Sudarshana contributes to Citrus Circuits as the business/media lead and believes the season as a whole has been by far the most successful.

“Winning world championships mean so much to our team. We oftentimes look back on the fact that we basically used to work out of a shipping container at Da Vinci [High] with a tiny space and a lot of limitations. This year with the expansion of our program and immense support from our community, I think a lot of people have pride in what we have accomplished,” Sudarshana said.

Although Sudarshana was unable to attend the competition, the fact that she was part of something so monumental made her tear up.

“We had people saying that they were inspired by us, which was crazy. We actually got contacted by TV stations and our team captain, [senior] Elise Wong, got interviewed today [April 26],” Sudarshana said.

Yamoah recalls celebrating last year when Citrus Circuits was in the finals. This time, she was thrilled to actually celebrate a win.

“[In] the past three years, being at champs and feeling the energy of tens of thousands of high school students passionate about robots is amazing. Looking up into the stands, I knew that we were the future of technology and that we had the power to change the world,” Yamoah said.

The team has worked hard to promote student leadership and their win has proved that it is possible for a student-led team to win championships.

“For the team, the accomplishment means 11 years of work has paid off,” Yamoah said.