The Twisted Botz, a robotics team based in Gloucester, won a pair of championships and garnered two Excellence Awards with its entries in two winter regional robotics competitions.

The Twisted Botz ran two robots and competed with 28 other teams on Jan. 26 in the VEX Robotics Tournament at Cedarville University in Ohio. The tournament was directed by Twisted Botz alumna Julia Thompson, now a junior studying mechanical engineering and pre-medicine at Cedarville.

At Cedarville, the Twisted Botz team 177 finished 11th in qualifying matches before forming an alliance with a team from Georgetown, Ky. Their alliance went on to upset the number one alliance in the finals to become the tournament champion.

The second Botz team, 177J, finished qualifying in 10th place and aligned with a team from Batavia, Ill. They were defeated in close quarterfinal matches, but the Twisted Botz 177J entry received the Excellence Award.

The Botz ran three robots while competing with 33 team...