Clayton Womack, Zack Rickles, Anthony Goodwin, Darian Dollar and Andrew Stock competed at Wallace State Community College.
Jefferson State’s Welding Department was invited to attend two recent welding competitions hosted by Wallace State Community College, Hanceville, and Calhoun Community College.
Both competitions were sponsored by Project MFG, which is based out of Kansas.
The first competition was held on July 15. This was a short time for the instructors to test and pick five students that would represent Jeff State Welding. It was also a short notice for gathering some supplies for student to use and practice. Instructors Danny Taylor and Brody Scott had to use their own time and resources to gather some supplies. The instructors thanked Atlas and NEXAir for their support on short notice.
Clayton Womack, Zack Rickles and Anthony Goodwin (from the Jefferson Campus), Darian Dollar and Andrew Stock (from the Shelby-Hoover Campus) made up the team. Students were limited to certain equipment they could bring; the remaining materials would be provided by Project MFG. Three other community college attended this competition: Calhoun, North West Sholes, and Wallace State-Hanceville (the host).
L.C. Maddox, Payton Schmitt, Doug Diaz, Joseph Gilkey and Mathew Yunke competed at Calhoun Community College.
The colleges did not know the items which would be provided to competitors. Students had an open opportunity to pick their own welding booth and try out their machine before the competition began. At the beginning, all students were given a box that had pieces of metal cut, which were to be assembled by a particular welding process. Students were provided a piece of paper with the drawing explaining how to assemble and weld. The student had two hours to complete the competition. The competition was graded by 15 different areas: squareness, visual, pressure tested and demonstration of measurement to name a few. Individuals as well as the teams were scored. Jefferson State’s Clayton Womack won first place, winning $500 from Project MFG and an all-expense-paid trip to Lincoln Electric in Ohio to compete at the National Competition. The team did well as a group, winning first place by 109 points over second place.
Following that competition, on July 21, Calhoun Community College invited Jeff State Welding to come and compete again on July 30, but with five different students. This only allowed approximately four days of class time (8 hours) for student to practice from what the instructors learned from the last competition. This team consisted of L.C. Maddox, Payton Schmitt, Doug Diaz, Joseph Gilkey and Mathew Yunke.
The team finished in first place, 38 points over second place. Doug Diaz won second place, winning $300 in cash and an Outlaw welding hood valued at $300. Payton Schmitt won third place, winning $200 in cash and an Outlaw welding hood valued at $300. These two students will also join Womack in a trip to Lincoln Electric in Ohio for the National competition in late September.
