537's Season in Review
All photos submitted by Aanya Ranasaria.
Hamilton's Charger Robotics Team 537 spent six weeks building and seven weeks competing — putting everything they had into the 2026 REBUILT™ season. They competed at two district events against hundreds of teams from across Wisconsin, and when it was all said and done, they'd earned their spot at State.
Lakeland
Prior to spring break, Team 537 took the field at their first district event in Sheboygan. They finished ranked 19th with a 7-8-1 record, competing in the playoffs as the 2nd Pick of Alliance 7 before being eliminated in Round 4 of the Double Elimination Bracket. The drive team got their first real look at what the season would demand. And from the jump, they knew exactly what kind of robot Wibby was going to be.
Wade Gonzalez, the team's alliance coach and strategy lead, put it plainly: “We took a unique strategic approach this year, since we thought defense would play a major role in this year's game. Despite the game benefiting large volume robots, we stuck with a small robot since it allows us to play defense easier.”
Build lead Elise Fuhr designed and oversaw the construction of Wibby all season long. “There are many factors that go into building a robot. We get requirements from the drive team, and heavily use the engineering design process, especially testing to continuously improve our design. We only get 6 weeks to build and perfect the whole thing, so it’s tricky and requires a lot of collaboration and teamwork to balance out the work to get it done in time.”
Navigator Noah Konshak spent the season instructing the driver on what to do and when, and even drove the robot during a few matches throughout the competition season. “This season presented many challenges from a navigation perspective. There are many areas and objects that can easily leave the robot stranded. Our team took advantage of this in driving, strategically navigating our robot and manipulating game elements to limit the mobility of the opposing side and increase our odds of winning.”
Mukwanago
At their second district event, Team 537 competed in the playoffs as the 2nd Pick of Alliance 8. But the biggest moment of the weekend had nothing to do with qualification rankings. Team 537 won the District FIRST Impact Award. It was their 10th blue banner, and the most prestigious honor in all of FIRST Robotics.
The Impact Award honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the mission of FIRST — transforming culture to inspire greater respect for science and technology, and encouraging more of today's youth to become STEM leaders. It's also an automatic qualifier to the Wisconsin State Championship.
Impact presenters Shaanvi Konda Gopinath and Abbie Dong, led by mentor Kristine Gonzalez, walked a panel of judges through a seven-minute presentation and five-minute Q&A covering years of community outreach and everything Charger Robotics has built beyond the field. They highlighted the hands-on STEM curriculum they developed for over 800 third and fourth graders across the Hamilton School District, Women in STEM workshops, and the Sussex Scrimmage.
Dong shared what the experience meant to her. “Being on the Impact team is so incredibly rewarding. Not only because we were able to win the Impact award at the district level, but also inspire communities to become engaged with STEM. We launched four science curriculum supplements this year for 3rd and 4th graders at Hamilton, something Shaanvi and I have worked really hard on this past season. This will allow so many more demographics to have access to hands-on STEM learning, and I’m glad students will have the opportunity to participate in STEM learning in a fun way! Overall, this season was definitely something for Impact to be proud of! We were able to achieve a lot of our goals, and we plan on continuing expanding access to STEM. I am very grateful for the support Impact received as well from our mentors Mrs. Betters and Mrs. Gonzalez. They played a crucial role in helping our team get where it is now.”
Konda explains: “Being on the Impact team has been such a rewarding experience for me. I have been able to carry out the purpose of FIRST's mission and expand STEM accessibility in my own community, whether that was through creating curriculum supplements or organizing robot demos. Being one of four teams in Wisconsin to win a district Impact Award truly meant a lot because it recognized the amazing work our team does. After all, our efforts are more than just for an award — they're to make a meaningful change. I am also truly grateful for the opportunity to work alongside amazing team members and mentors. None of this would be possible without Mrs. Gonzalez and Mrs. Betters.”
State
All of that hard work came together at the Wisconsin State Championship on April 17–19, 2026 at Brookfield East High School. Team 537 competed both on the field and in the judging rooms against three other district Impact Award winners for the state-level honor.
Rowan Hunt, the robot’s driver, described what defense looks like in practice: "Each robot is around 125 pounds and can move upwards of 25 mph. Our robot primarily fulfilled the defense niche this season. We have both the smallest and one of the heaviest robots in the state, and I made it my goal to create as many obstructions as possible. We blocked passage across the bump and trench, slammed into robots lining up for scoring, and herded game elements away from our opponents. This was easily the most fun I've ever had on drive team."
Team 537 walked away from the 2026 season with a blue banner, a State appearance, and a whole lot to build on. This off-season, they'll keep doing what they do best — outreach, building, and expanding — before coming back next year ready to go!
