Seventy students from South High School in Downers Grove qualified to compete in the SkillsUSA State Championship in Springfield, Ill., on Friday, April 12.
South High finished the weekend with 24 placers, 11 medalists, and three state champions including:
- State Champion and National Qualifier in Architectural Drawing Mitchell Thiel
- State Champion and National Qualifier in Principles of Engineering Ronald Kenyeri
- State Champions and National Qualifiers in Robotics Urban Search and Rescue Matthew Perry and Jason Papanicholis
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“On behalf of our team of advisors, we’re incredibly proud of each of the SkillsUSA state qualifiers,” said South High Engineering and Design teacher and SkillsUSA advisor Mark Molinari. “Congratulations to the students who placed and represented South High among the 2,000 students from Illinois.”
More than 2,000 career and technical education students competed in over 100 different hands-on trade, technical and leadership fields during the 2019 SkillsUSA Illinois Championships.
South High students competed in eight competitions against high schools from across the state, including: 3D Design & Visualization, Architectural Drawing, Engineering Technology Design, Mobile Robotics, Principles of Engineering, Technical Drawing, Robotics: Urban Search and Rescue Robotics and Technical Spelling.
3D Design & Visualization:
- 3rd place Bronze Medalists: Zach McGrath and Ben Bilby
- 5th place: Sarah Granstrom and Mariya Smiyan
- 6th place: Paul Fragoso and Greyson Martinescu
Architectural Drawing:
- State Champion and National Qualifier: Mitchel Thiel
- 2nd place: Nick Schmidt-Bailey
- 3rd place: Joseph McBrien
- 4th place: Emma Sayre
- 5th Place: Jay Patel
- 6th place: Jimena Gomez
Engineering Technology Design:
- 2nd Place Silver Medalist Team: Tiffany Love, Emily Spicuzza, Kristina Totoraitis
- 3rd Place Bronze Medalist Team: Trevor Jacobs, Thomas Rutter
- 5th place team: Matthew Perry, Parker Smith, Karolis Vaitkevicius, Jacob Bandyk
Mobile Robotics:
- 3rd Place: Mateo Garcia and Nathan Weichec
- 6th Place: Rishi Raja and Ethan Owcarz
Principles of Engineering:
- State Champion and National Qualifier: Ronald Kenyeri
- 3rd Place Bronze Medalist: Matthew Bair
- 4th Place: Sean Nolan
- 5th Place: Othman Jubran
- 6th Place: Nathaniel Unsicker
Robotics Urban Search & Rescue
- State Champions and National Qualifiers: Matthew Perry and Jason Papanicholas
- 5th Place: Will Morlock and Jackson Baker
Technical Spelling:
- 5th Place: Parker Smith
- 5th Place: Trevor Jacobs
South High SkillsUSA advisors include Mark Molinari, Brandy Palmerin, and Ryan Altenburg. Click here to view photos of the medalists and and click here to view photos from the competition weekend. To learn more about SkillsUSA Illinois, visit their website.