On Feb. 8, Harvard-Westlake teams competed in the McBride Beach Brawl robotics competition, hosted by McBride High School. 37 teams participated, representing a mix of middle schools, high schools, clubs, homeschools and nonprofit organizations.
Six Harvard-Westlake teams attended—five from the middle school (462A, 462B, 462G, 462T, and 462Y) and one from the upper school (62B).
Teams 462A, 462T, 462B, 462G, and 62B made it to the elimination round.
“Even if we did not score a lot of points, it was a great learning experience and was a great opportunity to test and fix our robot,” said Shriya Vishwas ‘28, a member of team 462B. “By our last match in eliminations, our robot was able to put the rings on the mobile goal, compared to the beginning where we struggled to hold a mobile goal to score the rings on.”
Team 462A, composed of Boyan Manolov ’28, Deen Sattar ’28, and Yared Zeray ’28, won the Middle School Excellence Award—the highest honor in the competition. This award recognizes outstanding performance across all aspects of the event and qualifies the team for the California State Championship.
“Team 462A has improved continuously over the course of the year and I believe that winning the award is validation for all of their hard work,” said Tripp Reed, Robotics Program Head. “They can come into the state championship with more experience and confidence.”
