April 20, 2026 Dear families and supporters of West High School Robotics,
It is with great pride and pleasure that I write to inform you that the “Utah Curse” has been broken!
For the first time ever, a Utah team has captained the winning alliance of the FIRST FRC Utah regional.
West High School in Salt Lake City, UT is home to two FIRST FRC teams: 3006, Red Rock Robotics and 2726, Red Pebble Rebels
Over the past weekend, both teams performed extremely well at the competition. Forty-two teams from Utah, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Hawaii, Canada, China, and Taiwan competed at the Maverick Center over the course of two and a half intense days. After each team played 10 qualification matches with randomly assigned alliances, Red Pebble Rebels ranked 9th place and captained the 6th seed alliance into playoffs. Red Rock Robotics ranked 3rd place and captained the 2nd seed alliance. Red Pebble Rebels were eliminated in the 2nd round of playoffs, and (as already mentioned) Red Rock Robotics captained the winning alliance.
Here is a video of Red Pebble Rebels and Red Rock Robotics, working together to win Qualification Match 70: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
And here is a video of the final match of competition, when the winning alliance bested two of the top teams in the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Red Pebble Rebels finishes the season ranked 6 out of 16 Utah teams.
Red Rock Robotics now advances to the World Championship competition in Houston, ranked 69 out of 3724 teams, worldwide.
More information about the program and the game:
In FIRST FRC competition, students design, build, and program large industrial-style robots to compete in a themed game each season. The season begins each January, when the game theme and rules are announced. Students have 6-8 weeks to prepare a robot for competition. In Utah and the intermountain west, competitions are regionals. Teams pay about $6,000 to compete against their peers from all over the United States and the world (other states in the US operate with a “district” model where competition is restricted to local teams).
In the 2026 game, Rebuilt, two alliances of 3 robots each compete to:
Score “Fuel” (foam balls) into a goal called the Hub
Navigate field obstacles
Climb a Tower at the end for bonus points
Teams earn points by:
Scoring Fuel (main scoring method)
Completing climbs on the Tower
Achieving thresholds for Ranking Points (RPs) like:
Fuel scoring milestones (e.g., “Energized” / “Supercharged”)
Successful climbing achievements
The team is led by head coach, Alison Bulson
Assistant coach, Enrique Arch-Larreta
Mentors Trevor Smith, Loren Majersik, Cameron Wold, Russell Brinton, and Jason Don
Thanks for all your support!
Sincerely,
Alison
***
It was an amazing event. 3006 lost one of their initial matches (battery issue? I can't quite remember...) but then worked their way up through all of the qualification rounds until they were finally ranked number 3. The number 1 team (Hawaii Kids) picked the number 2 team (Pair of Dice) as their first alliance selection, so Red Rock became captain of the Number 2 Alliance and took a gamble with the Idaho "Tators" as their second pick, even though they were much farther down in the rankings. While the Tators sometimes had reliability issues, their triple-shooter bot can unload a crazy amount of fuel when working well. In fact, earlier in the competition it had unleashed so much fuel at one moment that it literally clogged the hub and they had to restart the match! Paired with RRR, I think this was just about the only combo that could beat the well-funded Hawaii Kids. And win they did! They actually played the Number 1 alliance four times.
The first time, the Number 1 Alliance tipped 3006 and got a penalty so severe that they scored zero points! So much drama!
But then the number 1 alliance worked their way back up through the loser's bracket to play Red Rock again. They played three more times, with RRR squeaking out two wins for a Utah Regional victory!
Even though the kids play Ultimate, I'm sure this is the most I've ever sounded like a sports mom. And it's certainly the loudest I've ever cheered. Or the most I've held my breath. I guess I relate better to geeky robots shooting fuel at a target than to those who can layout for a catch. :)
Anyway, here are some photos that we took:
Eli had the largest cheering squad by far! Both sets of grandparents, Justin and Brianna, Callie and Adam, all his siblings, three of his siblings friends, his parents, and every single one of his cousins! Plus, NomiAnn made T-shirts for the crew! Too bad we had to cover them up with coats most of the time. Turns out the Maverik Center is freezing since it's used as a hockey rink some of the time. This was actually a big problem for the robots because the batteries don't perform well in the cold. RRR kept theirs in a cooler with heating blankets so that they wouldn't "brown out."
But hey, chilly or not, we were all smiles. Anders was SO excited. This cutie was so excited to support his cousin that he chose to come to robotics instead of going on a field trip to the Museum of Natural Curiosity. Now that's love!
Callie, Brooklyn, and Lily.
Anders and Violet getting cozy in their seats. Too adorable!
Annika came with our neighbor Jonathan.
More Brooklyn and Lily snapshots.
Hanging out with Papa Kay between rounds. Looks like he might have teased Annika about Steven.
Eila gets some NomiAnn snuggles. Don't miss Charles and Susie farther down the line!
Look closely and you can see Anders with his fists pumped as he cheers the victory.
He must have learned from Mom!
Such anticipation!
Apparently there was a bet between hardware and software that hardware lost, meaning that Khangai had to wear the maid's costume. Despite being unusual attire for this stoic student, the maid costume had a reputation for bringing good luck. I'm pretty sure that reputation has been solidified forever!
More cheers and hugs for Eli as the tournament ended.
Family, thank you SO much for all the support. It meant the world!
And speaking of worlds, 3006's stellar performance qualified West High for the 2026 FRC World Competition in Houston. Congratulations!!! That was the great news. The sad news is that the team had very limited funding, so not many students got to attend. Red Rock Robotics recognized Eli's outstanding commitment by nominating him for the Dean's list. However despite his stellar contributions, he didn't get to attend Worlds, mostly because he is a younger student and got to attend last year. While we understood the reasoning, it was still disappointing to have the team travel without him when robotics is SO important to Eli. When I became a parent, I had no idea that I would feel all the hurts of my children as if they were my own.
Even so, we celebrated with the team as they proceeded to do very well in Houston as well. Here is Ms. Bulson's recap:
Meanwhile, Eli was focused.
Champions!
That's the mayor's son (and Eli's friend) waving the flag.
Look closely and you'll see Eli atop someone's back.
And speaking of worlds, 3006's stellar performance qualified West High for the 2026 FRC World Competition in Houston. Congratulations!!! That was the great news. The sad news is that the team had very limited funding, so not many students got to attend. Red Rock Robotics recognized Eli's outstanding commitment by nominating him for the Dean's list. However despite his stellar contributions, he didn't get to attend Worlds, mostly because he is a younger student and got to attend last year. While we understood the reasoning, it was still disappointing to have the team travel without him when robotics is SO important to Eli. When I became a parent, I had no idea that I would feel all the hurts of my children as if they were my own.
Even so, we celebrated with the team as they proceeded to do very well in Houston as well. Here is Ms. Bulson's recap:
May 4, 2026
Dear Friends and Families of WHS Robotics Teams,
I am certain that your students have been sharing our journey in Houston with you, but just in case, here is a recap:
West High's “varsity” level robotics team won their division championship in Houston, Texas at the FIRST World Championships last Saturday.
West's veteran team, Red Rock Robotics (3006), competed at the FIRST Robotics Competition in the Archimedes Division. They were one of 75 teams in the Division and a member of the winning alliance. The same alliance then advanced to the Einstein Field; the highest level of FIRST competition in the world, where they were eliminated in the third round of playoffs, finishing in a tie for fifth place, overall.
Red Rock Robotics students designed and built a robot with a unique shooting mechanism (dye rotor to turret shooter) that could efficiently fire up to 12 balls per second into a high goal. The students programmed the robot to shoot on the move, resulting in a robot that could score in the 98th percentile, globally. They were selected by the captains of the Archimedes alliance for their versatility in match play.
Highlights from World Championship:
-Best performance in Team History
-First team in Utah to ever advance to the Einstein Field
-Division Champions, Archimedes Division (first UT team to do so)
-2nd Highest score in a match in the Archimedes Division (787 points)
Season Highlights
-Utah Regional Champions
-First Utah team to captain an alliance that won the Utah Regional in the 15 year history of the Utah Regional
-Top Utah team with an Expected point average of 175.7 points per match
-Industrial Design Award at Idaho Regional Competition
To ALL the students and mentors who worked on 3006 Gustav and 2726 Barb, you are amazing! We are so impressed by your commitment and engineering prowess. You represent West High so well! We can't wait to see the success of Red Rock Robotics and the Red Pebble Rebels in seasons to come. And Eli, we're so glad you've found your people. Your enthusiasm for robotics and learning and life is contagious! We love you to the moon and back--and have every confidence that you can design the rocket to get us there!
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