WARREN — For the first time since April 2019, members of the Warren Harding High School Delphi E.L.I.T.E. FIRST Robotics Team 48 competed in person at a regional event last weekend.

The team traveled to Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y., the first regional competition of the season, with others planned for Cleveland and Chicago.

Frank Bosak, a team adviser, said the team had five wins and nine losses at the competition and ranked 22nd of 37 teams. The team also played in the qualifying final round before being eliminated.

“We have a very young team with many new freshmen members who competed for the first time. I am proud of what they were able to to do. They did well, and what lessons they learned there will be taken to Cleveland in two weeks,” Bosak said.

This is Harding’s 25th year of competing in robotics.

In March 2020, the team had traveled to the Orlando Regional in Florida to compete when plans were changed quickly as the coronavirus pandemic caused everything to close.

“We had traveled to Florida, were there and ready to compete, when it was announced everything had to be canceled,” Bosak said, noting the remaining 2020 season and all of 2021 season was altered. Competitions either were canceled or done remotely.

Bosak said the team, along with several other teams from Mahoning and Trumbull counties, will compete at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland March 24 to 26 and then travel to the Credit Union 1 Arena in Chicago on April 7 to 9.

“Many of the local teams from Girard, Austintown, Howland will be at the Wolstein Center with us in two weeks,” he said.

Girard HIgh School FIRST Robotics Robocats team is scheduled to compete this weekend in Pittsburgh.

Bosak said Austintown Fitch High School FIRST Robotics team also competed in Rochester with five wins and nine losses and overall score of 14 out of 37. They also competed in the qualifying final rounds.

The various high school teams in Trumbull and Mahoning counties kicked off Jan. 8 as they learned the challenge for the robot they build, to earn points and advance through the season.

Bosak said for the competitions, the robot will be required to climb and throw a ball. The robot has to shoot balls into a large hoop. He said a team member also gets to shoot the balls into the hoop at half court.

The robot has to get the dodgeballs into a hub either by rolling it in or shooting it in. Near the end of the game, the robot has to climb monkey bars to score points.

Howland High School has a new team this year, the Howland 8718 Tiger Botics team, which is being mentored by the Harding team.

Bosak said the teams had eight weeks to construct and program the robot before their first competitions this month.