The Elmwood FFA team won the State FFA Ag. Mechanics Skills Career Development Event by not only taking
first place but having all three of its team members sweep the top three individual positions.
Senior Mitch Beaverson claimed first place individual honors and earned a $1,000 scholarship to Ohio
State University’s Agricultural Technical Institute.
Junior Jay Graham was second.
Rounding out the team was Garrett Benschoter in third place, out of 62 contestants.
The competition for the contest took place April 11 at ATI in Wooster.
The "Skills" event tests students’ abilities to complete a variety of mechanical oriented
skills that are employed in agriculture. This year’s contest required students to complete 11 stations
with a time limit of 10 minutes per station. Examples of skill stations included determining several
pieces of information on fastener properties in addition to repairing damaged threads on a fastener,
drilling and tapping a hole for a specific size fastener, welding a T-weld, performing a variety of
electrical tests and measurements, conducting an extensive array of hydraulic system tests, performing
measurements using a microm-eter, small hole gage, and dial caliper along with determining wear
tolerances for parts, assessing oils and related information, calibrating a torque wrench, and
identifying tools and fasteners.
This was the fifth time in the history of the Elmwood FFA that the chapter has been able to have a team
participate in this state event.