Four JCC SkillsUSA Members Qualify for National Competition

Thirty-three SkillsUSA members from Johnson County Central High School attended the 2026 Nebraska State SkillsUSA Leadership and Skills Conference in Grand Island from April 9-11 at the Nebraska State Fairgrounds.  Students attended an opening session on Thursday afternoon, participated in contests and a career fair on Thursday evening and Friday, and attended the awards ceremony on Saturday.  
Several students from JCC received medals at the awards ceremony.
Junior Wesley Schmid placed first in both state-only Architectural Blueprint Reading and state-only Diesel Equipment- Off Road.  Senior Zeke Burki placed first in Action Skills and the team of Sophomores Grace Frederick, Stefani Peters, and Tegan Topp placed first in Career Pathways- Business, Management, and Technology.  With their first place finishes in national-qualifying contests, Zeke, Grace, Stefani, and Tegan qualified for the Skills USA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, June 1-5.  
Eighth Grader Jay Chaudhari placed second in the middle school division of extemporaneous speaking, and Sophomore Landon Toohey placed second in state-only Extemporaneous Speaking- grades 9-10.
The following individuals and teams earned third place medals, Sophomore Gerardo Becerra Trujillo- state-only Extemporaneous Speaking- grades 9-10, the team of Sophomores Payton Brandt, Angel Buchanan, and Abigail Burki- Career Pathways- Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources, the team of Sophomores Chase Harrifeld and Anthony Orozco- Cyber Security, Sophomore Dalton Henderson- Criminal Justice, and Junior Aurora Stephens- Action Skills.  
JCC students who participated in events and did not place included:
Seniors
Zeke Burki- Pin Design and Quiz Bowl; Trevin Huskey- Aviation Maintenance Technology and Technical Team Problem Solving; Tan Nguyen- Related Technical Math; Aiden Strecker- Bakery and Pastry Arts.
Juniors
Jillian Cropp- Basic Healthcare Skills; Millie Gentert- Criminal Justice, Quiz Bowl; Ekho Golda- Action Skills, Extemporaneous Speaking; Mario Lara- Health Knowledge Bowl, Medical Terminology; Aurora Stephens- Pin Design, T-Shirt Design.
Sophomores
Tyler Albers- state only Diesel Equipment- Off Road; Gerardo Becerra-Trujillo- Customer Service; Abigail Burki- Health Knowledge Bowl; Grace Frederick- Health Knowledge Bowl; Team of Conner Gerking, Bodhi Klein, and Kenechukwu Ofoegbu- Promotional Bulletin Board; Aaryn Kaster- First Aid/ CPR; Bodhi Klein- Technical Team Problem Solving; Anthony Orozco- Quiz Bowl; Stefani Peters- Quiz Bowl; Landon Toohey- Customer Service; Tegan Topp- Quiz Bowl.
Freshmen
Xavier Arguello- Career and Technical Ecucator; Ella Hood-Shirley- State Only Job Skill Demonstration- grades 9-10; Ashton Huskey- State Only Job Skill Demonstration- grades 9-10; Bentley Myers- Architectural Blueprint Reading and Diesel Equipment- Off-Road; Edgar Prado- Architectural Blueprint Reading, Bridge Building, and Technical Team Problem Solving; Heidi Reyes- Career and Technical Educator and state only Job Interview- grades 9-10.