Georgia Northwestern Technical College’s Taylor Eagle of Chattooga County, Ga. hit the medal stand at the SkillsUSA National Competition this past weekend in Louisville, Ky.
Mr. Eagle took home the bronze medal in the Residential Systems and Installation Maintenance category at the organization’s National Leadership and Skills Conference held annually in the Bluegrass State.
Also placing in the Top 10 at SkillsUSA were Logan Thomas of Gordon County, Marvin Pointer of Polk County, George Soto of Whitfield County, and Noah Ranels of Gordon County. The team finished in fifth place for their work in the TeamWorks category. Beck Maxwell of Bartow County, Derek Walck of Floyd County, and Jake Woodall of Floyd County brought home sixth place in the Engineering Technology-Design category.
GNTC individual national qualifiers who finished in the Top 10 of their respective categories were Chris Roberson of Floyd County in Sheet Metal (6th), Patricia Escutia of Floyd County in Medical Assisting (6th), Brandon Battles of Chattooga County in Electrical Systems Technology (10th), and Jacob Hargrove of Catoosa County in Welding (10th).
One year ago, GNTC’s Ryan Fincher became the college’s first-ever gold medalist in the national championship. The Cedartown, Ga. native took home the moniker, “The Nation’s Best,” in the competition’s welding category. Mr. Fincher would later become a finalist in the U.S. Invitational Weld Trials, a qualifier for the 2017 WorldSkills Welding Competition Team which competes for a world championship in the trade.
Now, in its 54th year, the SkillsUSA National Competition saw more than 6,000 high school and collegiate qualifiers compete in front of nearly 1,500 judges in more than 100 categories ranging from Advertising Design to Welding and everything in between. SkillsUSA is a national, nonprofit student organization that has developed more than 10 million workers through active partnerships between employers and educators across the nation.