Seven LTHS Drafting And Design Students Win First Place At State

LOCKPORT, IL — Eight LTHS students competed in the state drafting and design competition on April 27 at Illinois State University. The competition is held by the Illinois Design Educators Association, in conjunction with the Department of Technology at Illinois State University.

The school said seven of the eight Lockport Township High School students competing in this year’s contest earned first place. Matthew Stonis achieved first place in 3D Assembly Modeling. Architecture Design team of Aldo Guerra, Naser Salem and William Centano achieved first place with a perfect score. Engineering Design team of Jonathan Naughton, Daniel Arechiga and Caleb Speechley achieved first place with a perfect score.

Bryce Bejlovec, who won the regional in March, also competed in the Introductory CAD division. Although he did not finish top three, he performed well at the competition, the school said.

All competitions were judged by engineers, architects and college professors in the drafting and design field. This year, over 200 students competed in ten different categories, the school said. At the competition, the students in individual events were given a drawing problem to solve and draw within a 2-hour time limit.

“These students put in many extra hours outside of class time to prepare for these contests, and their efforts paid off. I was so proud of all eight of the students for what they accomplished to qualify for state and how well they did at the competition," teacher Jeff Brown said in a release. "They all performed great at regionals and yet they did not let that go to their heads. They kept working even harder and improved for state. This is by far the most successful state drafting competition for LTHS. It will be hard to top seven state champions in one year.”