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Penticton students medal at Skills BC

Okanagan College had a very successful Skills B.C. competition and Penticton played a large role in it’s success.
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Okanagan College Automotive Service students on the podium at Skills BC. From left to right: Hugo Beaumier-Martin (bronze)

Okanagan College had a very successful Skills B.C. competition in Abbotsford on April 13th, and Penticton played a large role in it’s success.

Hugo Beaumier-Martin and Rav Matharoo, both of whom are from Penticton, each won a bronze medal in their respective events. For Beaumier-Martin that was automotive service, while Matharoo placed in heavy equipment service.

Another Penticton connection came through Curtis Koepke, who is from West Kelowna but attended the Penticton campus. Koepke won silver in refrigeration, despite having never been to a competition like Skills B.C. before.

“I’m pretty happy, I didn’t know what to expect so it’s a good result,” he said. “It shows well for the college to be there first of all, and to do well as well makes everybody proud. It brings a light to the Okanagan as well, and shows we’re doing good stuff up here and it’s not just the coast that can do it.”

While Koepke wasn’t surprised by the task he had to perform, he noted it was well designed and too straight forward, so it kept all the participants on their toes.

“Everybody that was there was skilled,” he said. “It was nice to see young guys with good motivation and good practice. It was really cool to go and watch the other events, it was fast paced and there were all kinds of skills there.”

In addition to Beaumier-Martin, Koepke and Matharoo, Okanagan College had eight more students medal. Zachary Andrews (electronics), Spencer Humphries (aerospace technology) and Aaron Schmidt (automotive service) each won gold, while Dale Blumhagen (automotive service), Sarah Maw (culinary arts) and Lukas Pfob (carpentry) won silver, and Andrew Kennedy (automotive service) and Rudi Verlinden (IT - network systems administration) each won bronze.

The students who won gold will be heading to Moncton, New Brunswick from June 5th to 8th for the Skills Canada national competition.