Thanks everyone for the advice... I know it seems overly ambitious to want to qualify for nationals off the bat, but for the majority of the time that I went through FIRST, every team that wanted to go went.
I appreciate all the suggestions. I will likely just be telling them what happened, and tell them that while it is sometimes hard to understand mistakes like this, we still have 6 shots at getting there:
for two regionals:
1. Rookie All Star
2. Win a Regional
3. Engineering Inspiration (???)
And we should do everything in our power to do this now that we are well on our way to the funds.
Thanks to everyone, and good luck to those of you already headed to nationals!