5 SRSS students win gold at Skills MB and prepare for Nationals

Five different SRSS students competed at Skills MB and each of them won first place in their selected category. They are all pumped to have won at the Provincial level, and are excited to go to Nationals.

 

Emma Oude Voshaar competed in the cabinetry section, and she had to build a miniature cabinet. 

She says the most difficult part for her was time management. 

"Because there was glue involved, so you had to wait till that settled and dried before you could actually assemble everything, so you had to set it up the right way in order to maximize your time.” 

She says she likely won because of the fact that she was the furthest ahead as well as her joints. 

She expects the National competition to be a lot tougher. 

“I believe we'll have to potentially finish the stain and stuff on the cabinet, but the cabinet will also be bigger, and it'll have different joints in it that might be a little tougher.” 

When asked what she was going to practice between now and Nationals, she answered eagerly: “everything that I don't know.” 

 

Niklas Stroh says he competed in electrical, and explains the task they were given.

“We made like 3 or 4 circuits. It was some receptacles, lights, smoke detectors, even a doorbell, and some commercial piping as well.” 

Just like Oude Voshaar, the most difficult part for Stroh was time management. 

"There were three parts overall, most people didn't even finish the second part. So you just had to go, go, go while still managing to stay clean and have everything good." 

He was the only one to complete all three tasks. 

Going into Nationals, he’s going to keep practicing being fast but clean. 

 

James Bartel competed in the auto body section. 

He describes his task:

“We had to fix two dents, both with two different methods. Measure some frame, figure out what was wrong with it. Do some plastic repair on a bumper and weld and cut and measure a rocker panel." 

He says the most difficult task to complete was measuring the frame. 

"I didn't know what I was doing, we didn't get to learning that," he chuckles. "But other than that, the welding was pretty hard cause there wasn't much time to do that.” 

Bartel explains the two different ways he fixed the dents. 

"One of them was hammer and dolly, just straighten it out, and the other one was with putty.” 

He says the reason he won is likely because he was the only competitor to finish the rocker panel. 

“That probably gave me the upper hand.” 

He says going into Nationals, he will have to do a lot of learning and practicing to get himself prepared. 

"It sounds like it's a lot harder, a lot more to do, and things I've never done before.” 

 

Devin Friesen competed in car painting. 

“I had to do a two-tone on a panel, so I do one color at the top and then mask it off and do a different color on the bottom. I had to polish and fix out a run and paint on the clear coat, and I had to fix the scratch on the fender.” 

He’s thinks the task at Nationals might involve looking at a colour and mixing paint to match it exactly.  

“I haven't done it before, so I have to practice and try hard.”  

 

Micah Bergman competed in framing, and there was a lot to do.

“It was kind of like a mini pergola, but instead of like benches, it had railings. It was kind of like a mini shelter,” he says. “It had about 7’4” posts. And then it had a roof, but it was an open roof, and it had two railings on either side.” 

He says the most challenging part was getting the pitches perfect.  

Going into Nationals, he says he will have to relearn measurements, as he’s switching from feet and inches to the metric system.  

 

With files from Corny Rempel