On Sunday, October 30, 2016, the two Cresskill Robotics Teams, the CouGEARs and the CouBOTs, competed in their first meet of the season at Dwight Englewood. The robotics competitions are held by First Tech Challenge, FTC; teams from all over New Jersey and even New York come to compete in a robotics field competition, in order to earn qualifier points to move to state competitions. This specific meet was FTC’s Halloween meet, so competitors were allowed to dress up in costumes.

The CouGEARs, team 6983, and the CouBOTs, team 8485, performed especially well in their respective matches, even with prior difficulties with the robot. During their first match, the CouGEARs had trouble with their programming, but finished the regular competition section in seventh place. The CouBOTs participated in one more match than the CouGEARs, so that allowed them to place sixth

Both teams were picked to compete in the semi-finals. The CouGEARs were picked by the Dragon Terminators and the CouBOTs were picked by the host team, Dwight Englewood. The CouBOTs were a part of the winning alliance for the meet and received an award for making it that far. They also won a Spirit Award, thanks to Sabrina Lew, who decorated the team’s pit for Halloween. The CouGEARs won the Engineering Notebook Award for having the best engineering notebook among the 12 teams that participated in the meet. This meet turned out well for both teams and showcased the hard work of each team.