Nearly 60 Lehigh Career and Technical Institute students notched top three finishes Feb. 3 at the SkillsUSA District 11 Championships at the Agri-Plex, Allentown Fairgrounds.

The annual competition pitted LCTI students against their peers from Bethlehem Area Vocational-Technical School, Career Institute of Technology, Monroe Career and Technical Institute and Upper Bucks County Technical School in more than 50 contests of skill ranging from advertising design to welding.

LCTI students racked up 16 gold medals, 19 silver medals and 23 bronze medals.

All of the event’s gold-medal winners earned a berth at this spring’s 2016 SkillsUSA Pennsylvania Leadership and Skill Championships in Hershey.

LCTI’s gold-medal (first place) winners are:

· CNC Technician: Gavin Mengel, Northwestern Lehigh High School;

· Early Childhood: Cassidy Shupp, Northwestern Lehigh;

· Power Equipment Technology: Dylan Berger, Northern Lehigh High School; and

· Welding: Nick Baer, Northwestern Lehigh.

LCTI’s silver-medal (second place) winners are:

· Basic Health Care Skills: Caitlynn Lucas, Northwestern Lehigh;

· Diesel Equipment Technology: Dale Kern, Northern Lehigh;

· Medical Terminology: Brittany Miller, Northwestern Lehigh;

· Nurse Assisting: Kylee Sanchez, Northwestern Lehigh;

· Precision Machining Technology: Evan Karpyn, Northwestern Lehigh.

LCTI’s bronze-medal (third place) winners are:

· Automated Manufacturing Technology: Tanner Rice, Northern Lehigh High School;

· Industrial Motor Control: Hunter Oberle, Northern Lehigh; and

· Welding: Brandon Bergen, Northwestern Lehigh High School.

Sponsored by local businesses, the championships are an opportunity for students from the region’s high schools to apply what they’ve learned in class to challenging scenarios that simulate demands of the 21st-century workplace.

They also serve as a means to expose the larger Lehigh Valley community to the value of career and technical education.