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Three Upper School Robotics teams from The Harvey School delivered an extraordinary performance the weekend of March 14-15 at the Southern New York State Robotics Championship held at Kennedy Catholic High School in Somers, New York. Competing against some of the strongest programs in the region, Harvey’s teams — 6277A Azygos, 6277B Off the Wall, and 6277C Hard Wired — each captured major judged awards. Even more impressive, all three awards automatically qualify the teams for the VEX Robotics World Championship, the largest student robotics competition in the world.

The event brought together many of the top teams from across Southern New York to compete in the VEX Robotics Competition, where students design, build, and program robots capable of completing complex engineering challenges. Judges evaluate teams not only on robot performance, but also on their engineering design process, teamwork, strategic thinking, and the quality of their engineering notebooks.

Team 6277B – Off the Wall earned the tournament’s highest honor, the Excellence Award, which recognizes the overall top team at the event. The award celebrates excellence across every aspect of the competition including robot design, programming, engineering documentation, teamwork, and match performance.

Members of Team 6277B include:

• Wyatt Bland '26- Builder, Driver, Coder
• Luca Nishimura '26 - Builder
• Sullivan Wieting '27 - Coder and CAD
• Jack Zimmerman '27- Engineering Journal and Strategist

Team 6277C – Hard Wired captured the Think Award, which celebrates a team whose engineering notebook clearly demonstrates an outstanding engineering design process. The award recognizes teams that carefully document their brainstorming, testing, design decisions, and improvements throughout the season.

Members of Team 6277C include:

• Ryan Dey '26 - Coder, Driver, and CAD
• Jacob Harkins '26 - Engineering Journal
• Talya Langer '26 - Engineering Journal
• Neel Mistri '27 - Coder
• Sara Strnad '26 - Builder

Team 6277A – Azygos received the Build Award, which honors teams that demonstrate exceptional craftsmanship and mechanical reliability in their robot construction. Judges evaluate precision engineering, structural integrity, durability, and thoughtful mechanical design.

Team 6277A is led by Henry He '26 - Builder, Driver, and Coder.

All three awards qualify the teams to advance to the VEX Robotics World Championship, which will take place in St. Louis, Missouri from April 21–30, 2026, when thousands of the best robotics teams from around the world will compete.

“Qualifying three teams for the world championship at a single state championship event is a rare accomplishment and reflects the tremendous dedication of our students," said Coach John Wahlers. "They worked incredibly hard to reach this level. The amount of time they put into designing, building, testing, and refining their robots is remarkable, and it’s great to see that commitment rewarded. Job well done!”

Coach Chris Kelly added, “I am incredibly proud of these teams. That pride resonates not only from their incredible efforts and achievements, but equally from the dignity and sportsmanship they demonstrated throughout the competition. They represented the very best values of our program and The Harvey School. Watching them support one another, solve problems, and perform at such a high level is truly inspiring," he said.

This achievement continues a remarkable run of success for The Harvey School Robotics Program. Since 2017, the program has qualified two to three teams for the VEX Robotics World Championship nearly every year, along the way earning two Division Build Awards at the World Championship, an Excellence Award, two New York State Championships, a New York State Excellence Award, three New York State Design Awards, and more than 130 regional tournament awards.

Through hundreds of hours of design, testing, and collaboration, Harvey’s robotics students continue to demonstrate that persistence, teamwork, and thoughtful engineering pay off.