Pike County CTC students shine at state competition

It was a strong year for Pike County Career Technology Center students, competing in the statewide SkillsUSA competition.

In all, 30 students traveled to Columbus for the competition in mid-April and two of those students, Reece Johnson and Cody Beekman, will advance to the national competition in Atlanta, Georgia in late June. In order to advance to the national competition, a student must finish first.

Johnson, an Innovative Medical Technology student, did a job skills demonstration, winning first place and a gold medal.

“I did how to test your cholesterol,” Johnson, who is a senior, said. “My favorite part of med lab is probably being able to draw the blood and do lab work. I wouldn’t say I’m a professional (at drawing blood), but I would say I’m pretty decent … I’m getting there.”

Johnson was competing against more than 20 others. He said the most challenging part of the competition was getting up in front of the judges and speaking. Although Johnson is the lone qualifier from his program, he will get to take another student along to serve as his model when he draws blood.

Beekman, a senior Electrical Trades student, won first place in Industrial Motor Control, and competed against 16 other students.

“I wired up a motor control circuit. I had push buttons, e-stop (emergency stop) switches, pilot lights, and a limit switch,” Beekman said.

As for what set his project apart, he said, “I believe my project was neater than others. I like it neat. I don’t like sloppy work.”

“Quality is important,” Toby Beekman, the Electrical Trades instructor, who is no relation to Cody, said.

“Cody is probably my most decorated student. He has all kinds of stuff. He completed my program, the state’s requirement for his credentials, the IBEW 575‘s requirement (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) and the national requirement for the first year of apprenticeship. I will be lucky to have another student like him come along in my time here I would say. He’s definitely one of one.”

Sophomore India Green took first place in the Building and Property Maintenance competition.

“I did electrical work, stripping and waxing, and then plumbing. Then I had to do the chemical mix,” Green said. “The judges sat and eyeballed every move that we made. I was very nervous.”

Instructor Paul Goode said plumbing was Green’s biggest challenge. However, her favorite part of the competition was the electrical work. Bryson Morgan, another sophomore, competed as well, but he did not place in the top three.

Both of these students stepped out of their comfort zone,” Goode said. “They were both sophomores, competing against juniors and seniors. That speaks a lot about what kind of kids they are.”

The other individual competitor who finished in the top three was senior Tyler Malone in Heating and Air Conditioning (HVAC). He was unavailable for the photo or interview due to being out on job placement. His instructor, Tim Marhoover, said Malone placed third for doing the diagnostic work and brought home the bronze medal.

The Pike County CTC Opening and Closing Ceremonies team secured third place and received bronze medals. That group includes Cylie Weaver, Jeweliana Leslie-Dalton, Laci Tomlin, Kalli Stephenson, Andrea Howard, Ryley Alexander, Braylee Cundiff.

Leslie-Dalton serves as the president of the group and shared more.

“We have all different positions. I’m president. We have vice president, secretary, treasurer, reporter, historian and parliamentarian,” Leslie-Dalton said.

“At competition, we all go into a room. There is a specific script we have to follow. We memorize it and we have to be in sync to be able to place. We have an emblem that we have to talk about. We have all of the emblem parts that each of us have to talk about, like the torch and orbital circles. We got third. But we were only five points from first place, and 2.5 from second.”

The team said they worked on it for a long time, guessing that they put over 20 hours into preparation.

Pike CTC Director Shon Tackett shared more about the administration side.

“All of our instructors do well. We did a regional competition and if they place at regionals they go to state. You have to finish first (at state) to go to nationals,” Tackett said.

“Mike Carter (Job Placement) is over the skills competition. He’s the one who signs them up, registers them, and gets the hotel reservations. He does it all. The instructors get their individual teams or students ready. Then we get an agenda that tells everyone where they need to be at what times. It is a big deal. It is like taking a sports team to the state championship.”

Tackett said he presented the results to the Pike County CTC School Board.

“The board pays all of the expenses. We let them know where their money is going and how the kids did,” Tackett said.

“We are very proud of them. We celebrate a little bit here when we get back. We did really well. We had some fourths and fifths (placements), but they (SkillsUSA) don’t recognize that as placing.”

Pike CTC’s national qualifiers and staff members will head south for the SkillsUSA Championships, which is held June 24 through 28 during the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. The facility covers over 1.79 million square feet of floor space, the equivalent of 31 football fields. More than 6,000 state champions from across the United States will be competing head-to-head in 115 skilled and leadership competitions.