Tasha Brown
Senior Austin Slayton with his award winning ping pong table.
Woodworking students received 31 medals at the Top of Texas Career and Technical Education (TTCTE) contest May 1 in the West Texas A&M University Activity Center.
Seniors Austin Slayton and Kolton Casey both placed first in their category. Slayton received first place overall while Casey received third, with Slayton submitting a ping pong table and Casey competing with a dining room table. Both Slayton and Casey received monetary prizes, and Slayton received a DeWalt drill set.
“I wanted to outdo the project I did last year,” Slayton said. “Last year I just built a little chess table, so I decided to make a bigger ping-pong table this year because I thought it sounded pretty cool.”
Students competed from schools all around the panhandle and were judged on their project and a packet explaining the work.
“Along with the project, you had to make a bill of material that shows what is in the project and how much you spent on it,” Casey said. “Then you also have to have a plan of procedure, like all the steps it took to complete the project. It also helps to have pictures.”
Both seniors began working on their projects and finished with barely enough time.
“I was having a lot of trouble with the legs and getting them to work,” Slayton said. “Then I had to get it to fold, but I didn’t start the hinging part of it until the day before contest. I stayed up here with some of my friends until 2 a.m. and sprayed finish on it that night just to get it ready for the next day.”
Slayton will be majoring in mathematics next year to become a math teacher and football coach. Casey will be majoring in computer science.
“I’m probably not going to major in woodworking or anything like that,” Casey said. “But when I get older, I want to have a small woodworking shop to do that on the side as a hobby because it is interesting.”
Best in class:
Austin Slayton: first place
Kolton Casey: third place
First place in category:
Austin Slayton
Kolton Casey
Jake Garland
Andrew Walsh
Clayton Skarke
Clay Slater
Marshall Blakeman
Jastin Graves
Hope Ramos
Bryson Blackwell
Jastin Graves
Rebecca Boehs
Ben Bingham
Second Place:
Ben Bingham
Jordan Knight
McKenzie Hampton
Jacob Bingham
Nicholas Davis
Marshall Blakeman
Jacob Bingham
Andrew Monroe
Rebecca Boehs
Third place:
Liam Marshall
Jacob Bingham
Samantha Davalos
Jastin Graves
Justin Lovell
Jordan Knight