photo by: Joselyn King

Members of the X-Ray robotics team at Wheeling Park High School and their partner team, Jinx of Wilmington, Delaware, react during the quarterfinals of the “Gateway to the West” robotics tournament finals Saturday at the Highlands Sports Complex.

TRIADELPHIA — Three local high school robotics teams made it to the later rounds of the Gateway To The West robotics tournament concluding Saturday at The Highlands Sports Complex, but the championship trophies went home with students from Virginia.

The “Hippies” team from John Marshall High School made it the furthest among them before falling in the quarterfinals. Two teams from Wheeling Park High School — “Xray” and “Yikes” — were defeated in the round of 16.

Coming out of the qualification rounds, the “Hippies” team was ranked ninth among the 80 teams participating. The team was asked by the seventh-ranked “X-Factor” team of Richwood, Ohio, to form an alliance. They would defeat teams from Ontario, Canada in the round of 16 before losing in the quarterfinals to an alliance of teams from Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, and Indianapolis.

Xray was ranked 10th among the 80 participating, and was asked by the No. 3 seed, “Jinx” of Wilmington, Delaware, to form an alliance.

The teams took on the alliance of “Wild West” and “Project 2025,” both of Elyria, Ohio, in the round of 16. The matchup resulted in a tie of 27-27, forcing them to play again.

The WPHS alliance then was defeated by the Elyria teams by a score of 42-31.

The “Yikes” team from WPHS was ranked 21st coming out of the qualifying round. They partnered with the Iron Eagles-C team from Brentwood, Tennessee, before losing in the round of 16.

The tournament was won by the alliance of “Ares,” from Montclair, Virginia, and “Pink Shinee Unicorns” from Manassas, Virginia. Taking home the excellence award from the tournament was the “Guardians” team from Maryland.

All three teams won automatic invites to the VEX World Robotics Championships happening this spring in Dallas, Texas.

It was the second consecutive year that Ohio County Schools hosted a signature VEX Robotics event and indications are they will seek the tournament again for 2026.

Middle school students competed on the first two days of the tournament, with high school students filling the arena on Friday and Saturday.

“We’re in day four, and I think the third day seemed the most difficult,” said JoJo Shay, innovation coordinator of Ohio County Schools. “Everybody was tired, but they came back today all revved up and ready to go.

“We have a great facility. We’ve had a lot of great compliments about that and how much space we have, and comments on the area and everything being accessible for eating and staying here (at The Highlands). A lot of people said,’ this is my first time here and I will be back.’ That’s great news for us heading into year three.”

Shay confirmed the school district will apply again to host the event next year, and that locations will be announced during the world championships.

“I think we did a good enough job to bring it back,” she said.