The Twisted Botz, a VEX robotics team based in Gloucester and comprised of eight high school students, is preparing for the Virginia State Championships Feb. 21 and 22 in Doswell after sweeping five Virginia regional tournaments.

The students built two robots to compete in the 2013-2014 challenge titled Toss Up. Since attending a preliminary competition in Maryland in November, the Botz have competed in and won tournaments in Portsmouth, Woodbridge, Ashburn, Chesterfield and Fairfax. 

Along the way, the Twisted Botz received the Excellence Award three times, the Sportsmanship Award and a Judge’s Award. At the state tournament this month, the team hopes to qualify to advance to the VEX World Championship in April in California and the National Championship slated for July in Hawaii. 

The perennially successful Botz are coached by John Thompson of Gloucester, a project manager at NASA Langley Research Center. Now marking his 11th year of...