The Mid-Pacific Owls Robotics team won the Del Mar Regional FIRST Robotics Competition as well as the FIRST Imagery Award in California March 7-8. The team now advances to the world competition level.

The event hosted more than 1,500 west coast high school students. The competition is part of FIRST, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to inspiring young people's interest and participation in science and technology.

"This team worked hard before coming to this tournament," said Mid-Pacific Director of Educational Technology Brian Grantham. "They represented the school and the state extremely well. As a team, they came together, worked well in their roles to create a team that could win."

Wrapping up day three of the tournament, Saturday had its ups and downs as they competed seven times and ended the day ranked 16th out 58 teams, according to Grantham. They ended the qualifier round ranked 26th.

The Owls were then chosen to partner with the fourth-ranked team. The Mid-Pacific robot, OB-1, performed well all day by conquering the autonomous section, accurately shooting the balls well and suspending itself on a rod.

"After a gut-wrenching tiebreaker, we survived the quarter-finals beating the fifth-seeded teams," Grantham said. "Next, we were paired with the first seed in the semifinals, which had the two best performing seeded robots at the tournament. After another gut-wrenching tiebreaker, we won the semifinals. In the finals, of course, it would go down to another tie-breaker with each team winning one match. It was an awesome performance!"