Lemont High School Boasts Record Number of Medalists at 2015 IDEA State Drafting Competition

—Photo: (L-R) Jasmine Hornik, Matt Lassak, Adam Popper

Lemont High School saw three members of its Technology Student Association earn medals at the 2015 Illinois Drafting Educators Association (IDEA) State Competition, which was contested at Illinois
State University on April 11. Senior Jasmine Hornik and junior Matt Lassak each earned third-place medals in the Architectural Board division, while sophomore Adam Popper was third in the Introductory CAD division.

This is the first time that Lemont has had more than one medalist at the IDEA State Drafting Competition. Prior to this year, Lemont’s only medalist at the IDEA State Drafting Competition was Sean Armbruster ‘09, who was the runner-up in 3D Architectural CAD Modeling category in 2009.

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.

For the second straight year, Lemont advanced a school-record three students to the state’s top drafting contest. At the IDEA Regional Drafting Competition on March 6, Hornik and Lassak took the top two spots, respectively, in the Architectural Board division, while Popper was second in the Introductory CAD category. Lemont now has advanced at least one student to the IDEA State Drafting Competition in seven of the last eight years.

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.