[Mark Jones]

With all of the catching up from being gone to Houston, Spring Break, and all of the other stuff that plagues us while we are away from our "real jobs", I'm just know getting around to sending out some belated thank you and acknowledgments.

First, Metal-in-Motion would like to express a huge thanks to our alliance partner's Team 25 and Team 494. It was a great thrill to work with each of you. We clearly had a dominate alliance throughout Curie and we were well on our way to the National Championship Title if it hadn't been for a little rotten luck with the breaker trip and the bum battery. I still feel that little void of knowing that we could have had it all, but it was still an awesome ride and we cannot thank you enough for giving us that experience.

Second, we would like to thank all of the awesome teams that were in the Curie division. Whether we played with you, against you or no matches at all together, we knew each and every team in the Curie division. When we finished qualification matches as the number one seed, we were very fortunate to be in this position; however, we were placed in a very difficult position of selecting our alliance partners with all of the great teams in Curie.

Special acknowledgements to:
16 - For the great opportunity to work with you last year in St. Louis. You have always been our model FIRST team.
60 - You dominated Curie last year and we were on the receiving end of that. You always have an impressive machine.
71 - The opportunity to play with the National Champions!
79 - For and outstanding drive train. You were definitely fast, furious and agile
103 - You helped kick-start our qualification success. Congratulations on the Chairman's Award.
308 - Very sophisticated programming. Thanks for demonstrating your MONSTAR system to me.

Third, we would like to thank and congratulate teams 111, 469 and 65 for a great championship match and for winning the National Championship. In our 4 years in FIRST, team 343 had never played a single match with any of these championship teams. It was a great honor and thrill competing with you. We certainly look forward to future opportunities to compete with you.

Lastly, we would like to thank each and every team from all of the other divisions for their support during the championship matches. It was awesome to look up in the stands and see a full house with every team in attendance. We appreciate the support you gave all of the division champs, but especially those teams that were cheering our alliance on.
Special acknowledgements to: 34, 180, 267, 281,312, 342,507… and the many others that showed their support and kept us in motion.

Mark Jones
Engineer/Coach
Team 343
Metal-in-Motion