Estevan Comprehensive School (ECS) students came home with 11 medals from Skills Canada provincials on April 22 in Regina.
A total of 24 students were part of the ECS team that went to provincials. Twenty-three of them were active competitors. The other was a model in the esthetics category.
Four students won gold medals: Shelby Tytlandsvik in architectural computer-aided design and drafting (CADD), Amber Hammermeister in mechanical CADD, Cierra Naka in hairstyling and Gintare Zingel in hairstyle braiding.
Tytlandsvik, Naka and Hammermeister will advance to Skills Canada nationals in their respective competitions in Moncton, N.B., from June 5 to 8.
There is not a national competition for hairstyle braiding.
Zingel also won silver in the bridal event. Other silver medallists were Kelsey Shier in aesthetics, Kendra Senchuk in architectural CADD, Avery Dechief in baking, Cazlynn Barnstable in hairstyling and Austin Smith in auto body repair.
Tia Dayman won a bronze medal in photography.
Joyce Mack, who is the hairstyling instructor at the school, and Tara Johns, who teaches drafting and is responsible for the students in the CADD events, said all of the students represented the school very well.
The scopes of the projects and the level of competition were very impressive this year.
“I think this year you’ll notice some of the standards might be a little tougher as far as the tests because this is the qualifying year for the worlds,” said Mack. “And so that kind of trickles right down into the provincials.”
The world championships are held every second year. Students who finish first at nationals this year will qualify for worlds next year.
Students who went to provincials worked hard in advance so they would be ready for the competition.
“I would say we probably put in 100 to 150 extra hours on top of class time to get them ready for the competition,” she said. “And for the gold medalists, I’d say we’re going to put in that much in the next month to get them ready for nationals.”
Tytlandsvik, Hammermeister and Naka will prepare for nationals by working on projects from previous years that have been posted online.
“Some ideas have been posted for what’s going to be done this year online already,” said Johns. “So they will be busy modeling and drafting and getting everything ready to go.”
They will do a lot of research for what they could be facing at nationals, but there are a lot of unknown details that they won’t receive until they arrive in Moncton.
A post-secondary competition was also held at provincials. ECS alumni swept the top three spots in hairstyling, as Kianna Stepp won gold, Chrissy Wanner took home silver and Brooklyn Willerth captured the bronze. Regan MacMurchy competed in mechanical CAD and won silver.
“When they get into their post-secondary schools, I think they enter with a goal to enter the skills competition, if they’re permitted to, and I think that’s based on what we’ve done with them at this level,” said Mack. “They have the drive and the love of it now.”
