Students from Salina Area Technical College brought home 10 medals from the Kansas SkillsUSA contest, held in Hutchinson this past week, and four students qualified to compete at the national conference in Louisville, Kentucky in June by winning gold in their competitions.

Winning gold medals were:

• Brayden Kuntz, a senior at Salina Central High School, in the high school division of the Computer Numeric Control Milling competition;
• Savio Nguyen, a senior at Salina South, in the high school division of the Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration competition;
• Austin Golden of Marquette, in the college division of the HVAC competition;
• Kevin Pope, a senior at Smoky Valley High School, in the Diesel Equipment Technology competition.

Silver medalists were:

• Dason Sweat, a senior at Minneapolis High School, in the high school division of the CNC Milling competition;
• James Fletcher, a senior at Salina South, in the high school division of the HVAC competition;
• Sara VanArsdale of Gypsum, in the college division of the Technical Drafting competition;
• Quentin Sams of Welda in the college division of the Automotive Service Technology competition;
• Nathaniel Bussen of Wallace, in the college division of the Diesel Equipment Technology competition.

Winning a bronze medal was:

• Andrew Gourley of Salina, in the college division of the Architectural Drafting competition.

This is only the second time Salina Tech as had four gold medalists, with the first time being in 2017. Last year, Salina Tech students won a total of eight medals at the state competition.

SkillsUSA is a nationwide organization serving more than 280,000 high school and college students and professionals who are enrolled in training programs in technical, skilled, and service occupations, including health care.

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