The KTEC welding class at Lakeland High School went to KTEC on Feb. 9 to compete in the annual welding competition with other schools in the North Idaho area.
This year, our boys and girls competed intensely with each other and students from different schools but fell short in some areas.
The welding competition allows students to show off their skills to students from other schools, such as Sandpoint High School and KTEC.
This is another way for LHS to prove its abilities to other schools and show off its students humbly and competitively.
Bailey Kennedy, one of the two girls in the KTEC welding class at LHS, placed second in her class for her welds.
Kennedy was very excited and pleased with her performance and believed the only area she could improve on was looking at her blueprints.
As one of the only two girls in her class, Kennedy is very proud of herself as a woman.
“It feels good to know that as women, we can do whatever we set our minds to, and we’re just as good as the boys,” Kennedy said.
It is inspiring to see LHS students excelling at their chosen electives.
Mason Kirk is a junior at LHS in his third year of welding who competed.
“I feel like I passed with flying colors,” Kirk said. “I did so fantastically and feel very confident after getting ninth place.”
It is fascinating to see the success of LHS students, their contributions to trades and how they compete with other schools in the area.
“I’d say we did pretty decent,” Frank Ferriola, a junior at LHS and highly competent welder, said. “I believe overall, we did pretty well because we didn’t give up and persevered, and we worked through adversity and never gave up.”
Even though LHS was not highly successful in the competition against other schools, they still recognized their faults and understood where to work harder.
Kirk explained that they need to work on setting up their equipment faster, reading their blueprints more thoroughly and understanding welding parameters more thoroughly.
