Area students go on to national SkillsUSA event

Students from Arizona Western College and Kofa and Cibola high schools will be advancing to national competition after winning gold medals in the SkillsUSA's statewide vocational skills competition.

AWC students winning gold medals in the recent competition at the Phoenix Civic Center were Eric Olivares, for collision repair technology; Jason Trapanier, extemporaneous speaking; Steven Seale, prepared speech; and Leyla Mendoza, culinary arts.

Winning gold medals from Kofa were Victor Cortez, electronics, and Erik Gonzalez, power equipment technology

From Cibola, gold medal winners were Richie Averett, job skills demo, and George Covarrubias, auto.

They will advance to the national competition in Kansas City, Mo., in late June. More than 1,600 students competed in the state competition.

Other medal winners from AWC were:

-John Baldwin, bronze medal, automotive service technology

-Gilber Garcia, silver, and Shawn Hayden, bronze, extemporaneous speaking.

-Kevin Estrada, silver , and Casey Liljadahl, bronze, prepared speech

-Jason Trepanier, silver, precision machining

-Jerad Trannum, silver, and Zack Kelly, bronze, welding

-Sergio Moreno, silver, and David Keller, bronze, culinary arts

Winners from Kofa were:

-Austin Breen, bronze, extemporaneous speech

-Isaac Rodriguez, bronze, power equipment technology.

-Cesar Larios, silver, construction

-Andrea Munoz, silver, prepared speech

Winners from Yuma High were:

-Nick Puzu, silver, and Luis Padilla, brioze, law enforcement

Winners from Cibola High were:

-Synaith Torres, silver, and Ana Martinez, bronze, promotional bulletin board.

SkillsUSA is a partnership of students, teachers and industries working together to ensure America has a skilled work force. SkillsUSA helps each student preparing for a career in technical education to excel by teaching important employability skills such as communication, problem solving and leadership.


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Jennifer Lovell can be reached at
jlovell@yumasun.com or 539-6849. Sun staff writer Sarah Reynolds contributed to this report.