Six schools participate in district Skills contest

Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Wyatt Hennrich cuts metal with help from Chris Stone during a team welding competition at the Sikeston Career and Technology Center on Saturday. Each team was given three hours to create a fire pit for judges. Jill Bock, Staff

SIKESTON - Teams from six career and technology centers participated Saturday in the Skills USA Welding Fabrication District Contest.

The Sikeston Career and Technology Center hosted the contest. Also taking part were the career and technology centers at Doniphan, New Madrid, Kennett, Pemiscot and Poplar Bluff.

A timed event, students arrive not knowing what they are going to build. They received raw materials and a set of detailed prints and had three hours to finish it.

Teams from Current River Career Center at Doniphan won first and second place and will advance to the state contest at Linn State. First place team members were Paul Giovingo, Lane Tracy and Jake Joplin and the second place team members were Triston Uhl, Cole Gentry and Hunter Crumley.

Third place went to the Sikeston team of Jon Fodge, Zane Huddleston and Josh Parks.

"All the students came out and had a positive experience, it was challenging contest that really pushed their limits as welding fabricators," said Brent Trankler, SCTC welding instructor.

Judges for the contest were: David Durham (Praxair), Patrick Nenninger (Construction Trailer Specialist-CTS) and Bryan Davis (Lincoln Electric).

On Feb. 7, the SCTC will host the Individual Welding Skills USA district contest in which 17 students from the surrounding districts will compete with the top two finishers going on to compete at the state level. The judges for that contest will be David Kennedy (Metal Weld), Caleb Wickham (Missouri Welding Institute), and Wes Winchell (Missouri Welding Institute)

According to Trankler over $4,000 worth of prizes and scholarships for the contests were provided by: Metal Weld, Victor, Miller, Lincoln Electric, and Missouri Welding Institute.

"It takes a lot of support from your school, community and welding vendors to run a contest of this size," said Trankler, who went to thank those who assisted in the contest and support the program.