You should try to be a programming lead in robotics. This worked very well for my sons. It is to your advantage that the team doesn’t make it past regionals because this will reduce the amount of time you need to spend on it. This is just my personal guess, but I don’t think colleges care whether the team makes it to Nationals or not. I think that they know that different teams have different access to good engineering mentors and financial resources. The programmers generally don’t do their job until near the end of the build period. The other main task is to train newcomers who join in the fall. Even if you don’t have time to be a lead, I think it is important to at least be a member. Don’t worry about it being only for 2 years. Robotics was a big part of my kids application essays. They also mentioned personal programming projects that were not connected with school. Personal projects convince colleges that a programmer is enthusiastic about what they are doing more than memberships in clubs. Robotics is the exception.