​LHS Ties School Record With 3 Medals At IDEA State Competition

LEMONT, IL — Lemont High School’s Technology Student Association tied a school record with three medals at the 2021 Illinois Design Educators Association (IDEA) State Competition, which was contested virtually this spring, the district said in a release.

Seniors Caden Brennan, Matas Carmichael and Michael Doyle matched the best finish in school history by placing as the runner-up in Engineering Design, while seniors Karl Ramski and Genna Yavaraski were third in Assembly Modeling and Architectural Board, respectively.

The students advanced to state final competition thanks to their performance in a regional competition scored by Joliet Junior College, the school said. Yavaraski placed first to continue Lemont’s tradition in the Architectural Board division in regional competition. In that category, students are challenged to design and/or draw specified views, details or sections using provided materials, specifications and drawings. A Lemont student has won the regional in Architectural Board eight straight years, dating back to 2014, according to the school.

Brennan, Carmichael and Doyle teamed for a runner-up regional finish in Engineering Design, in which a student “firm” of two or three students complete a presentation and project solution to sell their firm’s design to a client. Carmichael is the school’s first three-time state qualifier; he previously qualified individually in Introductory CAD and Assembly Modeling in 2019 and 2020.Ramski placed third in the regional in Assembly Modeling, in which competitors model and subsequently assemble a number of parts using parametric constraint-based modeling programs, the school said.

Under the tutelage of teacher Scott Duensing, Lemont has had at least one IDEA state qualifier in 13 of 14 years, the school said. It has earned multiple medals in state competition three times, with a high of three state medals in 2015. It advanced a school-record five entries to state competition in 2020, but that year’s state competition was cancelled due to COVID-19.