The Edna ISD Welding team has returned from competition as State Champions. The five-man team competed against 35 other finalist teams in the Texas FFA Association’s Applied Agricultural Engineering contest in Huntsville on April 10.
Brant Peters, Grayson Davis, Ike Brezina, Austin Sommerfeld and Riley Allen represented Edna FFA as they competed in a written exam, stick welding, oxy-propane welding, and blueprint layout.
The team competed in several competitions prior to Area and State to prepare, and to be sure each of them was as practiced and skilled as possible.
Every team member brings their own strengths to the table “We all have our thing that we’re better at,” said Sommerfeld. “One’s better at welding, since he’s been doing it the longest of all of us. One’s more math based, so he might be better at the layout. Me, doing shooting sports, having the steady hand helps me with cutting and that. So I feel like we all have our weakness, but then we have our strength that helps pull us together” State Championships don’t come easy. Even Grayson Davis, who individually claimed first place, had some jitters.
“My hands were shaking, but I had to get through it because it’s state contest,” said Davis.
Ag Mechanica teacher Kurtis Koop said he was incredibly proud of the young men.
“I’m very proud of them,” he said. “Two years of getting second place, missing it by eight points once, but this time they won.”
The boys individually placed as follows: Grayson Davis, first; Brant Peters, third; Ike Brezina, fifth; and Austin Sommerfeld, 12th and Best Cut.
