WEST BEND — The SkillsUSA State Competition was held in Madison on April 9 and 10. From the more than 1,500 students who competed in over 80 different competitions this year, 32 Washington County high school and college students made the podium, with 12 taking the top spot to move on to the SkillsUSA National Competition held June 24-28 in Atlanta.
Founded in 1973, SkillsUSA Wisconsin works to promote and develop a pipeline of skilled trades workers who can excel in the workforce and shrink the skills gap. One of the ways they do this is through their SkillsUSA competitions, which feature a wide variety of categories, from culinary to public speaking, to give students the opportunity to develop specific skills they can use throughout their lives and in potential future careers.
Washington County Students who placed in the 2024 SkillsUSA State Competition include:
Germantown High School
Three students from Germantown High School placed in the state competition last week.
Claire Reedy received bronze in the Architectural Drafting competition, in which students had to solve an architectural problem. The competition included a written test, hand sketch and either computer-generated or board drafted drawings to evaluate the competitors’ problem-solving abilities.
Tyler Weber received silver in the Criminal Justice competition, in which students took a written exam and were placed in practical exercises to evaluate their abilities and knowledge of the field, including constitutional law, written and verbal communication skills and their ability to handle an entry-level law enforcement position.
Evan Schmitt received bronze in the Culinary Arts competition, which encompassed both hot and cold food preparation to test competitors’ knowledge and skills through the production of a menu that meets industry standards.
Hartford Union High School
HUHS had five students take home the gold last week, including Mason Lipenski, who won the Cabinetmaking competition, and the team of Derek Becker, Connor Ford, Trent Schmitt and Nathaniel Weber, who won the Teamworks (team) competition.
Lipenski had to build a small cabinet, or other piece of furniture, from the supplied materials and drawings.
The Teamworks team had to work together to build a construction project over two days while demonstrating their ability to work together to plan, complete and present the project.
HUHS also had six other individuals and teams place at the state competition.
In the Automated Manufacturing Technology (team/high school) competition, Christopher Duehring, Thomas Wetzel and Adam Zuern took home silver. For the competition, the students were evaluated on their ability to use computer aided drafting/design (CAD), computer aided manufacturing (CAM) and computer numerical controlled machining (CNC) technology.
Brady Downey received bronze in the CNC 2-Axis Turning Programmer competition. Downey had to independently plan and program jobs for CNC turning centers and provide instructions for operators to execute.
Evelynn Hutchins-Gutschenritter took silver in the First AID/CPR competition, in which she had to demonstrate her ability to perform the correct course of action (CPR, AED, first aid) based on the scenario she was placed in, as well as take a written test.
Mason Lipenski also brought home silver in the Woodworking Display ($51-149 estimate) category.
Moraine Park Technical College West Bend campus (MPTC)
The SkillsUSA State Competition also featured categories for college-aged competitors, and MPTC had six place winners.
Ian Behnke won the Industrial Motor Controls competition, with Mason Dudzek taking second and Ty Karvala taking third. The students had to demonstrate their knowledge of electrical principles, equipment and industry codes and standards related to the design and installation of motor control systems. There is no national competition for this category.
Zachary Augustin, Kyle Kasten and Jadon Uecker competed and placed second in the Automated Manufacturing Technology (team/college) competition.
Slinger High School
Slinger had one student place in the SkillsUSA competition. Samantha Gnatzig won the Advertising Design competition.
Gnatzig had to take a written test and recreate an advertisement on a computer in the competition.
West Bend East and West high schools
Eleven students made the podium for West Bend East and West high schools.
The team of Zach Church and Seth Deming won the Digital Cinema Production competition, with the other West Bend team, consisting of Lilly Harter-Pokorny and Alexandria Hanrahan, taking second place.
The two teams had to watch movies from Alfred Hitchcock and M. Night Shyamalan and then make a short film in their style.
The Video News Production team of Greyson Degroot, Traynor Gieryn, Alex Lukaszewicz and Jose Rodriguez also won their competition. The students had to create a news broadcast that included a local, state, national, international and sports story and then record the broadcast for their competition.
Noah Mintie took home bronze in Extemporaneous Speaking, in which he had to give a three- to five-minute speech on an assigned topic with only five minutes of preparation time; and the team of Lauren Daute and Olivia Rahlf also took home bronze in their competition, Television (Video) Production, in which they had to plan and shoot a video between 30 seconds and one minute long.
