avon.waters@heraldbulletin.com

ELWOOD — Four Machine Trades students from the John H. Hinds Career Center brought home a huge traveling trophy from the 47th annual Machine Trades Competition that determines the best in the state. The event, held Feb. 24 at Vincennes University, was the fourth state title out of the last five years of competition for Hinds, said Jim Pearson, director of the career center.

Elwood Senior Will Cole was nervous in his first competition. Once he got onto the floor and touched the industrial lathe, a quiet calm came over him.

“I felt at home,” Cole, 18, said. “It’s what I was prepared for. We spent a month practicing on work pieces and written tests getting ready for this.”

Cole placed first in the advanced class — the class where students have been studying machine trades for two or more years — where students are given blueprints and a machine and told to make a part, a manipulative test. Each of the 18 career centers competing from across Indiana sent two first-year or beginning students, and two advanced students. Teams were scored on three events and as individuals, said Shannon Carson, a 14-year instructor at Hinds.

Students had to perform three exercises, Carson said. They did two 40-minute manipulative tests using a lathe and mill. Then, they competed in measuring a machined part for precise measurements. Lastly, they took a written test on safety, blueprint reading and machine shop theory.

Sean Hoskins, 18, a Madison-Grant student attending Hinds, won fourth place in the advanced overall competition. He contributes his success and the center’s success to the program.

“At some of the area competitions, the guys from other (career centers) say they’ve never touched a mill before the competition,” Hoskins said. He felt a high degree of confidence in what he was doing during the competition. “I know what I did on the mill was right because we don’t spend six months looking in a book here. We go out and do it on the machines.”

Pearson said the competition and Hinds’ student success are indicators that students are ready for post-secondary training or to start work when they leave the program.

Jacob McElfresh, an Elwood junior, won first place in the beginner division overall competition that scores all three areas. Christian Young, a Frankton junior, placed third in the beginner division for the overall scoring. This is the first time that so many of the team have all placed so high, Carson said.

He attributes the success of the center to Dan Rayshich, who was one of his instructors when he graduated from the center as a Hamilton Heights senior. Rayshich helped start the competition in 1961 and helped build the program at Hinds.

“I think it shows we’re doing the correct things here,” Carson said. “Winning four of the last five years, that’s something special. Some of the other instructors joked when they saw us arrive that they hoped we might not show up this year.”