Seniors James Luttringer, Cameron Greenaway, and Joey Shields were not expecting to place in the regional SeaPerch competition due to the short amount of time they had to build an underwater robot. But despite their self doubt, they managed to win first place on Saturday.

“We were surprised. We weren’t expecting much going into the competition,” Luttringer said. “We only had about five weeks to prepare.”

The regional SeaPerch competition consisted of schools throughout the area. Each team was required to create a robot that could operate underwater and complete a challenge and an obstacle course.

This year’s challenge was designed to mimic the real-life events that occurred earlier this year when 12 boys had to be rescued from an underwater cave in Thailand after it was flooded.

The team will travel to College Park, Maryland, to compete on June 1 and 2 with their robot at the national level.

Luttringer expressed excitement at the prospect of competing at nationals for the first time after participating in the SeaPerch competition for four years.

“I’ve been doing this challenge since freshman year,” Luttringer said. “To finally get to compete at the national level was really shocking and exciting.”