Mt SAC wins gold medals in SkillsUSA contest

Mt. San Antonio College vocational education students won four gold medals, three silver, and a bronze at the SkillsUSA regional competition held recently at Los Angeles Trade Technical College, and seven qualified to advance to the 47th Annual State Leadership Conference competition on April 24-27 at the Town Country Resort and Convention Center in San Diego. 

Rhiannon Britney (West Covina) and Kevin Velasquez (Ontario) won gold medals in technical drafting and will advance to the state competition. Sukhdev Singh (Chino) won a gold medal for technical design and will advance to state. In the electronics technology competition, Jose Gomez (Azusa) won first place and Cesar Bustamante (Anaheim) took the silver medal. Both will advance to the state level. In telecommunications cabling, Samuel Arrieta (Monrovia) took second place and Hyun Cha (Rowland Heights) won third place with both advancing to state.

Other competitors for Mt. SAC were Carlos Galdamez (West Covina) with a silver medal in technical drafting, Trevor Lauritson (Pomona) with a fifth-place finish in technical drafting, and Rodrigo Del Villar (El Monte) with sixth place in the computer maintenance technology competition.

First-place winners at the state competition will advance to the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference slated for June 21-27 in Kansas City, Missouri. 

The SkillsUSA championships are showcases for the best career and technical students in the country. Contests begin locally and continue through the state and national levels. More than 5,600 students are expected to compete at this year’s national event. 

SkillsUSA is a nationally affiliated vocational club representing secondary and post-secondary students in the trade, technical and health fields. The vocational education organization represents more than a quarter million students in over 13,000 chapters nationwide.