Congratulations Rhodes State IT/ET Challenge Winners!

They did it again! Tri Star’s REC Tech and Engineering Tech students brought home the top prizes from the Rhodes State College Information Technology/Engineering Technology Challenge held Friday, March 23^rd in Lima.

For approximately 18 years in a row now, a Tri Star REC Tech student has won first place in the Electronics Challenge. This year senior Nathan Heitkamp took that top spot. He wasn’t the only winner, in fact Tri Star students earned first place honors in every event in which they participated.

Both juniors and seniors from Tri Star's REC Tech and Engineering Technology classes competed alongside 200+ students from area career technical schools including Ohio Hi-Point Career Center, (Bellefontaine), Apollo Career Center (Lima), and Millstream Career Compact (Findlay).

The contests Tri Star students competed in included:
Electronics Challenge – This contest is made up of two parts, a multiple choice assessment covering electronics related material and a hands-on soldering project. Tri Star winners were Nathan Heitkamp - First place, Michael Dietz – second place, and Caleb Bundy – third place.

Hill Climb - Students had to build a vehicle that could scale a 55 degree incline. The fastest vehicle won. Isaac Eblen - First place, Gabe Combs - third place and Zane Schroer - fourth place
Tallest Tower Challenge - Students had to build a tower with the materials they were provided. The winners were the ones with the tallest self-supporting tower. CJ Vanderhorst and Caleb Bruns - first place and Jesse Jenkins and Ryan Swaja - third place.

Robotics Obstacle Course Challenge - where students had to design, build and program a robot to navigate an obstacle course. The robot designed had to be either an autonomous or remote controlled robot. Tri Star teams that won were Tyler Broering, Alex Dues, and Matt Tangeman - first place, Tylir Young and Cedric Bailey – second place and Dalton Ballinger, Devin Sharp, and Nathan Wycuff - third place.

CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners and participants (see pictures below). A big thanks to REC Tech Instructor Jerry Kohnen and Engineering Tech Instructor Keith Westrick for the great training they provided these students in order that they could do so well.

Pictured above right (from left to right) is REC Tech student Zane Schroer who took fourth place in the Hill Climb Competition, Engineering Tech student Isaac Eblen who took first place in the Hill Climb Competition and a Rhodes State College Representative. Missing was Engineering Tech student Gabe Combs who took third place in the Hill Climb.