Bainbridge Middle School Robotics Club is in the middle of it’s third competitive season and is having some fantastic success.

The club, made up of middle school students from Woodward, Odyssey, Saint Cecilia, and Commodore, fielded two teams — Binary Blackbirds (8745) and the Circuit Breakers (9374) — in the FIRST Technical Challenge.

FIRST (for Inspirations and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a national organization that was formed to encourage interest in math, science, and technology through robotics.

Both Bainbridge teams competed in an FTC league event in November against eight high school teams from the greater Seattle area. The eight opposing teams were from Garfield, Franklin, Aviation and Seattle Academy high schools.

In the match, Binary Blackbirds claimed second and Circuit Breakers fifth, both with solid performances.

“I felt our team was advancing very well because there were lots of new members, but they all pulled their own weight,” said Cory Houser from Binary Blackbirds.

“For an inexperienced team that only meets twice a week, we did very well,” added Quinn Courtway, also from Binary Blackbirds.

The club is now preparing for the second match on Sunday, Dec. 11 at Seattle Academy.

The Middle School Robotics Club was founded in 2014 in a large part due to generous grants from the Bainbridge Schools Foundation, the Bainbridge Community Foundation and Bainbridge Island Rotary. They’ve also enjoyed encouragement from Enrique Chee, Bainbridge High’s Spartronics Robotics Club founder.

The club’s faculty advisors are Paul Sullivan and Sean Eaton. This year’s adult mentors include Clint Pells and Mike Houser.

Binary Blackbirds student leaders are Cavoni Laranang, Taiyo McElderry and Zoe Pells. The other members of Binary Blackbirds are Sydney Weibel, Jax Campbell, Quinn Courtway, Noah Solomon, Harrison Gilmore, Cory Houser, Mark Geriach, Josh Miller, Brandon Sellie, Lane Johnson and Tanner Nalley.

Circuit Breakers student leaders are Darwin Clark, Kai Weaver-Sanso and Gabriel Titos. The other members are Maxton Fanberg, Mitchell Teresi, Willy Diaz, Zak Harmon, Ryan Olney, Evan Yeung, Evan Heisinger, Adam Rideout-Redeker, Camden Greenhalgh, Aidan Driggers and Jack Staub.