By Troy Daugherty

SkillsUSA is a program that seeks to better those that compete in the events by building on their leadership, technical, and professional skills. They have competitions in a large variety of fields, such as welding, design, robotics, photography, and even mechanical work.

It is an annual competition that host high schools and colleges from all over Kansas. This year, the event was held in Hutchinson for the first time. Usually, the event moves from one location to another yearly, but the people in charge wanted to make it more centralized so for now on the event will be held in Hutchinson every year.

According to Jillene Cunningham, who is one of the people in charge of the SkillsUSA at HCC, “The events usually vary a lot, but the students usually have some kind of written exam, then a skills-based project to complete.”

There were hundreds of students competing so the competition was spread out. The events were held between Hutchinson Career and Technical Education Academy, HCC campus, the state fairgrounds, and the Atrium Hotel.

HCC students who won medals in the competition include:

In the Mechatronics contest Tyler Sisseck and Nicholas White earned Gold medals, Ryan Bengston and Marcus Geddert were the silver medalist.

In the web design contest Keegan Miller and Heather Skyes were the gold medalist, Max Carlson and Daniel Debiolt took the Silver.

For the photography contest, Shelby Horton earned Gold, Loribeth Reynolds took the silver, and Lauren Rust received the Bronze medal.

In advertising design Bonnie Huschka took the gold, while Derrick Hull became gold medalist in extemporaneous speaking. Kaitlynn Sosa took silver in the architectural drafting, Luke Gooding earned silver in the precision Machining contest and John Goertzen took silver in the Auto Service Technology contest.

In the teamworks contest, Chance Hulgren, Mark Aylward, Adam Hildebrand and Dylan Winter took the silver medal.

The gold medalists of the competitions get to go to the national competition this summer in Louisville, Kentucky.

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