Apple Pi Heading to World Championships

Spring 2026 marked the 20th season of competition for Guilford’s Apple Pi Robotics and it has been one of their most successful seasons to date. Apple Pi was recognized with the “Judges’ Award” and was a Finalist at Western New England University Tournament held in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 15-16, 2026. Apple Pi then won the “Autonomous Award” for the highest scoring self-driving sequence at the Hartford District Tournament held on March 28-29, 2026; their high-scoring performances in the Hartford event drove them all the way to the Finals, where they brought home their first tournament championship banner in the last 10 years!

The momentum from this win propelled the team to the New England District Championship, which was held this weekend from April 16-18 at the Eastern States Exposition Coliseum in West Springfield, Massachusetts. Apple Pi finished as #10 out of 50 teams in their tournament bracket.

Following the the New England Championship, Apple Pi now ranks #18 out of 200 New England Teams by district points, #2 in Connecticut, and rose from #95 up to #75 among all teams in the world. Apple Pi’s outstanding performance earned the team an invitation to the upcoming FIRST Robotics World Championship Event. They will be among the top 600 teams from around the world heading to Houston, Texas for the FIRST Finals taking place from April 29 to May 2, 2026.

Robot driver Ridhaan Chavan (GHS Junior) said that “the biggest strength of our robot build this year has been its durability and consistency. The quality of our design and build stood out, because the robot performed well in every single match we played.” Chavan was the team’s lead in manufacturing & design this year, using CNC and milling machines in the shop along with research and teamwork to assemble and refine the robot. He notes that most recently, the team “added a special grip tape on the shooting mechanism to increase the friction, and this single
small change further improved our robot’s shooting ability leading up to the New England Championship.”

In the current 2026 FRC Season, there are over 93,000 high school students participating from 35 countries, including about 2000 teams from all across the United States. More broadly, FIRST has a presence in 114 countries and has engaged over 4 million youth participants since its founding in 1989. The organization states that 83% of FIRST alumni pursue STEM related majors by year 4 of college.

Mentor Diane van der Grinten noted “the students stepped up to learn and perform all the tasks in the shop to create this year’s robot. They made huge strides in programming and coding to put together a high-quality robot which performed super well in this year’s competition season, enabling them to score high in both the autonomous period (first 20 seconds) and tele-op period (student controlled) aspects of the competition.” Furthermore, she noted that while teams used to have to custom build their drive train, off-the-shelf “swerve drive train” components are now available for use. This innovation now “allows the students to focus their efforts on the robot’s upper portion to develop and improve the prototype suited to the specifics of each year’s competition challenges.”

This year, the Apple Pi Team includes Seniors Hudson Lusk and Zachary Earls, Juniors Alexander Berkhin, Ridhaan Chavan, Jessica Wilson, Emilio Donarumo, Braden Haskell, Sophomores Henry Donnelly and Caleb Martin, along with Freshmen Gavin Cheslock, Adam Longbrake, and Matthew Rubin. Team Apple Pi is also a group of adult mentors from the local community who work in engineering, science, business, management and many other disciplines within their respective companies. These mentors provide guidance and perspective as the students embark on their journey, and in 2026 include Rick Page, Jim Scott, Diane and Peter van der Grinten, Craig Fuchs, Andrew Donarumo, and Kevin Brown.

Each year, the teams of FIRST Robotics have to design, program, and build an industrial sized robot to play in a new action-packed game, which is announced each January. The teams have about 2 months to conceive and create their robot for the competition season. Each team must compete in 2 district tournaments to earn district points and compete for a bid for the district championship tournament. All teams worldwide use the exact same game field and game rules. This season’s game theme is titled “REBUILT” and involved each robot gathering foam balls as “fuel” to be collected and shot into a target hopper to score points. Apple Pi’s robotic creation this year was named “Pi-Ceratops,” and had a fast front intake, an expandable hopper to collect fuel, and a dual shooting mechanism which helped them to quickly become one of the highest scoring teams in New England.

Braden Haskell (GHS Junior) worked as a Drive Coach for the New England Championship to track time remaining during each match, talk with the 2 other teams in each match “alliance” to coordinate strategy and track the available fuel on the field. He remarked that this year, the “passion of the students” on the team was a real highlight, adding that “everyone from the start wanted to do well and put their full effort forward, get the robot built quickly, and make constant improvement. We learned a lot about how the motor control system works and how improved coding helped to refine the software further and make rapid changes to the robot’s overall performance.”

The FIRST Championship is a massive celebration of STEM, featuring unique team identities, fundraising efforts, and a strong sense of community, with a culture of “coopertition” where teams often assist one another even while competing on the field. FIRST also emphasizes the term
“gracious professionalism,” meaning that teams can compete fiercely while also treating opponents with dignity and respect. This culture promotes teams being competitive and cooperative at the same time, fostering spirited competition and friendships that form among the teams.

Lessons learned are derived from multiple disciplines: planning, design, building, electrical and mechanical engineering, strategy, communication, coordination, data analytics, time management, failure analysis, problem solving, all while performing under time constraints and with pressure to repair, charge, and upgrade the robot between the 12 qualifying matches in each competition. 2026 Season Sponsors & Fundraising
Team Apple Pi is supported regionally by Medtronic and the Connecticut 4-H Foundation, Inc., and has been supported locally for each of the past 20 years by Bishop’s Orchards and Page Hardware. Connecticut FIRST teams are also supported by a grant from the Connecticut Manufacturing Innovation Fund (CT Manufacturing). ReadyCT oversees this partnership with NE FIRST, the official program delivery partner for all FIRST programs in Connecticut.

Team Apple Pi is a 501c3 nonprofit organization and is fully supported by tax-deductible grants and donations. The team’s biggest annual fundraiser is coming up on May 6 & 7, 2026 via the “Great Give,” which is an online fundraiser that supports numerous local and regional organizations, with many corporations providing matching gifts and other donations to incentivize local donors to give to the registered organizations. This year, the donation website to support Apple Pi is listed below:

https://www.thegreatgive.org/organizations/apple-pi-robotics-ct-4-h-foundation

Apple Pi is actively seeking new members and wishes to invite interested High School Students from Guilford and the surrounding communities to visit the Apple Pi Team Website at: www.applepirobotics.org. Students should then also contact the team via email, applepirobotics4H@gmail.com and also reach out to Mr. Rick Page, the team’s lead Mentor at rick.page.home@gmail.com.