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Local area students bring home medals after skills competition

Apr 17, 2018 | 2:00 PM

A group of Prince Albert high school students have proven they have serious skills.

Five students from Carlton and one student from St. Mary received medals at the Skills Canada Saskatchewan competition, held last Friday in Regina. The students who won gold medals in their respective events, have the opportunity to compete at Nationals in Edmonton in June.

Keaton Lair, a Grade 10 student at Carlton, won gold in the IT Network Systems event. He said he was excited about going to nationals.

“IT has always been my passion and I have quite a few computers, built them, repaired them, dismantled them,” he said.

Kyle Nelson, a Grade 12 Carlton student, went to the provincial competition three times, but this year was the first year he received a gold medal. He said he’s hoping this achievement will help his career plans.

“Next year I’ll be going to the University of Saskatchewan for engineering and I want to go into electronic and computer engineering,” he said.

Also from Carlton, Zach Tretiak, won gold in electrical wiring, Kelly Lam won silver in public speaking and Razina Zhou won bronze in architecture/drafting.

Teacher Brad Amy will join the boys at nationals in Edmonton. He said he is very proud of all the students, adding the event can be very tough physically and mentally.

‘It’s not just who can finish the project, it’s who can deal with all the people walking by, who can deal with the stress; and who can get enough sleep,” he said.

From St. Mary High School there was one medal winner. Lilly Cheeseman, a Grade 11 student, won gold in the job skills demonstration. She demonstrated how to draft and dimension a wall-mounted shelf in a two-dimensional format.

“If I do go into a drafting as a job I hope maybe they’ll see I’ve done something in this and be like ‘Hey cool, this person has really worked hard at this so maybe we should consider her,” Cheesman said.

W.P. Sandin High School in Shellbrook sent nine students to the competition. Three students would finish first, second and third in plumbing and heating: Nolan Ferster (gold), Kyle Simmonds (silver) and Nathan Anderson (bronze).

A couple of students from Birch Hills also won gold medals. Ethan Enns finished first in cooking, and Megan Evans in baking.

 

nigel.maxwell@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @nigelmaxwell