Lemont Advances Three Students to IDEA State Contest for Second Straight Year

For the second straight year, Lemont High School’s Technology Student Association has advanced a school-record three students to the state’s top drafting contest. At the Illinois Drafting Educators Association (IDEA) Regional Drafting Competition on March 6, senior Jasmine Hornik and junior Matt Lassak took the top two spots, respectively, in the Architectural Board division, while sophomore Adam Popper was second in the Introductory CAD category. All three will compete at the IDEA State Drafting Competition at Illinois State University on Saturday, April 11. This marks the seventh time in eight years that at least one Lemont student has advanced to the IDEA State Drafting Competition.

In the Architectural Board category, students are challenged to design and/or draw specified views, details or sections using provided materials, specifications and drawings. Competitors in Introductory CAD must have less than one year of experience in high school drafting; they are challenged to draw specified views of a given drawing problem.

More than 125 students representing a number of Joliet-area high schools competed in eight divisions at the IDEA Joliet Junior College Regional, which was one of 17 regional sites across the state. All first- and second-place finishers earn the right to compete at the IDEA State Competition. The eight divisions in which students compete are: Introductory Board, Introductory CAD, Architectural Board, 2D Architectural CAD, 2D Machine CAD, 3D Architectural CAD Modeling, 3D Assembly Modeling, and 3D CAD Modeling.

Lemont’s drafting program, under the tutelage of teacher Scott Duensing, has had a great deal of success in recent years at the IDEA Regional level. The school has boasted a number of regional champions prior to Hornik, including Ryan Strauss ‘08 (3D Architectural CAD Modeling) in 2008; Nick Lawrence ‘09 (3D Architectural CAD Modeling) in 2009; Mark Kaminski ‘10 (Architectural Board) and Kathy Sitko ‘10 (Introductory Board) in 2010; Szymon Krzeptowski-Mucha ‘13 (Architectural Board) in 2012; and Tom Janik ‘14 (Assembly Modeling) and Katie Lynch ‘14 (Architectural Board) in 2014.

Lemont’s top finisher at the IDEA State Competition was Sean Armbruster ‘09, who was the runner-up in 3D Architectural CAD Modeling category in 2009; he was the runner-up to Lawrence at the regional level that year.