From left, Butler High School students Braedon Fencil, Zachary Potter and Zachary Scott control their battle Bot in their preliminary skirmish during the BotsIQ battle at Butler County Community College on Thursday.

BUTLER TWP — Perpetual Motion, a fighting robot entered by one of the two Butler High School teams in Thursday’s BotsIQ competition at Butler County Community College, finished in third place.

However, all 21 teams in last week’s preliminary round will be among 65 teams competing in the finals at California University of Pennsylvania on April 13 and 14.

The preliminary round is intended to allow the teams to test their robots and fix any problems they find.

Five teams from Butler County are in the competition, which is sponsored by the Pittsburgh Chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Foundation.

A second Butler High School team entered Hammer2th, which tied for seventh place with Union High School’s Swankey Sprocket.

Moniteau High School also had two teams. Their robot, The Last Ride, finished in a three-way tie for ninth place and their second robot, Rising Sun, finished in a three-way tie for 13th place.

The Seneca Valley High School team’s robot is Nemesis and it finished in a three-way tie for 17th place. The preliminary for the rest of the 65 high schools in BotsIQ will face off at Westmoreland County Community College next week.