East Welding Fabrication Team Wins 1st Place in State

The Lincoln-Way East Welding Fabrication team of Tori Hay, Brian Rooney and Nolan Trippiciho won 1st place in state amongst a crowd of 12 teams that qualified in this year's SkillsUSA state competition. The premise of this competition is that each team must build a predetermined project within a 3-hour time limit.  The project, a weld positioner stand, encouraged contestants to work independently as well as collaboratively. The team did an excellent job, and they were the only team able to finish all their welding requirements and the only team to create a complete a working weld positioner stand. The team, composed entirely of senior students, will also advance to the national competition in Atlanta, where they will be faced with an even larger project that is to be completed in 6 hours against state winners from across the country.  Mr. Daymon Gast, the SkillsUSA advisor, is in his first year of leading the L-W East Skills chapter and his first state championship win in weld fabrication.