Mt. Pleasant High School students take fifth in Iowa Auto Skills Contest

Two Mount Pleasant High School students captured fifth-place in the 30th annual (DMACC)/Iowa Automobile Dealers Association (IADA) Automotive Skills Contest recently held at the DMACC Ankeny Campus.

Tate Garmoe and Jason Shirkey were the skills competition fifth-place finishers.

Garmoe and Shirkey each received numerous tools and supplies donated by the Iowa Automobile Dealers Association and scholarships provided by the DMACC Foundation.

Each member from the other seven teams also received tools and supplies from the association for their participation in this competition.

In total, more than $23,000 worth of tools and equipment was awarded to the contestants.

Ames/Collins-Maxwell Gilbert High School students Gage Myers and Charles Duster won the competition, while Boone/Ogden/South Hamilton High School took second place and Ballard/Madrid/Nevada/Roland-Story High School captured third.

Other schools competing were Southwestern Community College Career Academy, DMACC Southridge Career Academy, Fort Madison High School and West Des Moines Valley High School.

Eight two-member teams of Iowa high school automotive students qualified for the hands-on portion of the Automotive Skills Contest by having the highest average scores on a written test held in October on the DMACC Ankeny Campus.

More than 300 students representing 20 Iowa high schools competed in the written portion of the contest.

The DMACC Foundation provided $1,000 scholarships to each of the first-place finishers, $600 scholarships to each of the second-place winners, $400 scholarships to each of the third-place winners and $250 scholarships to the fourth-place finishers.