GIRARD — The Girard FIRST Robotics APTIV Team No. 379, the RoboCats, finished in third place out of 50 teams from five states and two countries at the Greater Pittsburgh Regional competition over the weekend.

Team member Leah Maurice, a junior, qualified for the World Championship in Houston in April by winning the Dean’s List Finalist award, which is given to only two competitors. FIRST Robotics officials said the Dean’s List Finalist award “recognizes outstanding student leaders with a passionate commitment to FIRST’s core values who have led their teams and communities to increase awareness for FIRST and its mission while achieving technical expertise and accomplishment.” Additionally, interviewing judges look for the student’s overall individual contribution to their team, entrepreneurship and creativity.

At the World Championship, Maurice will compete with other team members from around the world to be one of 10 FIRST Dean’s List World Championship Winners.

The RoboCats finished as the No. 4 seeded team after two days of qualifying matches and selected team 2614 from Morgantown, West Virginia, and team 2013 from Ontario, Canada, to compete with them as alliance partners in the playoff tournament.

The team was eliminated by the No. 2 alliance, which went on to win the championship. The Robocats have qualified for nationals previously, and this was their first competition of the season.

Girard coach Ashraf Hadi said, “Our team has created an innovative robot that not only climbs and scores consistently, but also picks up from the floor and scores into both goals.”

Team founder and volunteer mentor Joe Jeswald was equally proud of the team and points out the value of skills developed beyond producing a successful robot. He cites these skills as problem solving, creativity, adaptability, teamwork, communication skills, and time management, among many others.

The team will be selling That’s A Wrap pepperoni rolls this month and will host a pancake breakfast, along with the Girard-Liberty Rotary Club, 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. March 24 at the Girard Italian Fraternal Home.

Team coaches and volunteer mentors include Hadi, Jeswald, Judy Barber O’Brien, Jenifer Riedel, Brandon Snyder, Nick DiFabio, Jarrett Duskey, Rick (Pony) Plant, and alumni and Aptiv employee Mark Plant.