McKinley FIRST robotics recently went to San Diego, Calif., to compete against teams from all over the world.  But this year the competition took a turn when it got canceled due to the coronavirus.

The team was already in San Diego when the competition got canceled. The whole team was disappointed. They were already setting up when they got the news.

“My heart dropped when I heard the news,” Junior Miyu Thepsenavong said.

Thepsenavong joined McKinley’s robotics team as a freshman.R obotic team members are assigned different jobs. Some design the robot, build the robot, and code the robot for the whole third quarter.  Thepsenavong works on designing and machining. Team members spend  a lot of their own time after school to build this robot.

Thepsenavong said she understands why the competition got canceled.

She said, “I think what they did what was the best for our safety because of corona but I still wished we had the chance to compete.”

The people who were probably the most devastated with the news were the seniors on the team it being their last year to compete. 

Thepsenavong still has her senior year and plans to stick with robotics. 

“I hope corona doesn’t affect next year’s season. I learned a lot of new things this year despite the circumstances,” she said.