Twelve high school students from Yorkton brought home medals from the provincial Skills Canada Competition in Moose Jaw last month.
Their first-place finishes mean that 3D Animation winner Gage Bush and Robotics team Jaedon Pellatt and Nicoli Ochitwa will be advancing to Nationals in Quebec City on the first week of June.
Skills Canada is a national competition that tests students' skills in trades and technological fields. Three hundred and fifty students from schools across Saskatchewan participated in 37 categories at the provincial event on April 15.
Pellatt and Ochitwa, two Grade 9 students at Sacred Heart High School, had to create a robot capable of launching balls into stationary and moving nets for the Robotics category. It was their first time competing at Skills Canada.
"I had no idea we were going to go that far and eventually win it," said Pellatt.
The team built on the work of last year's SHHS group to create their gold-winning robot. They plan to keep improving it in the weeks leading up to the national competition.
"We're going to try and make something that can pick the balls up off the ground, because that's one thing that we didn't have in Moose Jaw," said Ochitwa.
"I think we should do pretty good," Pellatt added.
3D Animation first-place winner Gage Bush attends Yorkton Regional High School. Because Yorkton's two high schools were the only ones to submit candidates in the 3D Animation category, the competition was held at Sacred Heart High School. Although the contest allows for teams of two, Bush worked alone.
Competitors were given six hours to create an animation based on the theme revealed to them at the start of the day: "Out of Time." Bush's interpretation was a 35-second film about a man waking up late for work, rushing to get ready, and crashing his car after pulling out of the driveway.
Bush, who won silver at last year's provincial competition, is looking forward to Nationals.
"I'm pretty confident about that. The only thing I'm really nervous about is the fact that Quebec City is mainly French, so it's going to be interesting ordering meals out."
Other YRHS medal winners were Garth Dickey (Bronze in Automotive Service), Brady Teichroeb (Bronze in Outdoor Power and Recreation Equipment), and Shayne Gold (Silver in Autobody Repair).
Sacred Heart's other medal winners were Anthony Fetsch & Brandon Parfitt (Bronze in 3D Animation), Riley Markewich & Brady Lang (Bronze in TV Video Production), and Dakota German & Kyle Novak (Silver in 3D Animation).
