NW Georgia’s best headline SkillsUSA, join 16,000 others

Seventeen Georgia Northwestern Technical College students will put their skills to the test against the best in the nation.

GNTC’s SkillsUSA Team competed last week in the National SkillsUSA competition held during the National Leadership and Skills Conference in Louisville, Kentucky that ended on Friday, June 29.

More than 16,000 students, instructors, and business recruiters and partners are in attendance this week.To qualify for the national team, GNTC competitors grabbed gold in 10 total categories on the state level earlier this year, besting last year’s mark of eight total golds for the college. This year’s group also included a pair of Polk County competitors as well.

With some of the categories being team competitions, GNTC saw 17 students qualify for the chance to be the best in the nation at the state competition in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Bobcats SkillsUSA team brought home 10 state gold medals in these categories: Brandy LeVan (Catoosa County), Prepared Speech; Chris Roberson (Floyd County), Sheet Metal; Jacob Hargrove (Catoosa County), Welding; Tristin Bethune (Walker County), Automotive Service Technology; Taylor Eagle (Chattooga County), Residential Systems Installation and Maintenance; Brandon Battles (Chattooga County), Industrial Motor Controls; Patricia Escutia (Polk County), Medical Assisting; Stephen Bottoms (Floyd County), Nathan Rittweger (Bartow County), and Tucker Tumlin (Floyd County), Welding Fabrication Team; Marvin Pointer (Polk County), Noah Ranels (Gordon County), Logan Thomas (Gordon County), and *HRUJH 6RWR :KLW¿HOG &RXQW\ 7HDPWorks; and Beck Maxwell (Bartow County), Jake Woodall (Floyd County), and Derek Walck (Floyd County), Engineering Technology/Design.