SANFORD - Sixteen Central Carolina Community College Welding students recently won honors in the North Carolina SkillsUSA virtual championships, a competition developing career and technical skills for students in middle school, high school, and college.

Welding sculpture first-place winner Alex Buitrago earned the opportunity to participate in the SkillsUSA national championships.

CCCC students competing in the state SkillsUSA competition and their place of finish were:

• Welding Sculpture: 1. Alex Buitrago. 2. Austin Simmons. 3. Antonio Heck. 4. Jacob Rector.
• Welding Fabrication: 4. Matthew Briggs, Jefferson Hobbs, Jacob Radford. 5. Marion Vargas, Braxton Fore, Joshua Battle.

Also, two teams from CCCC competed in the Metalworking Showcase Competition. Participants were:

• Second Place - Alex Burns, Eric Sauer, Jacob Vickrey.
• Third Place - Mark Johnson, Scott Gorman, Cameron Dingle.

"Our welding students have performed very well," said Charles Bell, CCCC Welding Program Director. "The students prepared and submitted multiple page step-by-step notebooks explaining how they fabricated their projects. They are well prepared for employment and every one of them would love to compete in SkillsUSA again. I am so blessed to have had the opportunity to teach them."

Alex Buitrago finished first in the Welding Sculpture category in the SkillsUSA state competition, creating a replica of a SR-71 Blackbird military jet.

"What I most enjoyed about the project was starting from nothing and seeing how over time everything started coming along then eventually seeing the final product," Buitrago said of his project. "The most challenging part about creating this project is welding very thin areas of the project."

Buitrago said his future plans include eventually working his way up and landing a job welding very large pipes.

"My thoughts on the CCCC welding program is it's a very good program," said Buitrago. "The instructors will take the time to make sure you learn every aspect in welding. They care very much for their welding students."

The Central Carolina Community College Welding Technology students can earn one of the following credentials -- associate, diploma, and certificate. Learn more about this program at cccc.edu/curriculum/majors/weldingtechnology.

For more information on Central Carolina Community College - which is dedicated to providing pathways to achievable dreams, visit www.cccc.edu.