Congratulations to Oxford High School seniors D.J. Kraniak and Donovan Scott for their 7th Place finish at the Ford/AAA Student Auto Skills state competition last Wednesday.
With their families cheering them on at Macomb Community College, the duo competed against nine other teams from across the state by servicing a 2007 Mercury Grand Marquis that was bugged with certain malfunctions in under 90 minutes.
Kraniak and Scott were the second team to finish in about 25 minutes, but unfortunately got knocked down to 7th Place for a few mistakes.
The students forgot to replace an interior light bulb and put the trunk carpet back together wrong, which deducted four points from their score.
Their final score is comprised of a written regional test they took and their hands-on score. They were also awarded the top score in the state for their written test portion.
‘If we would’ve caught those (mistakes), we would’ve done real good,? Kraniak said.
Though they wish they could’ve placed higher, Kraniak and Scott both said they learned a lot more about the electrical aspect of automobiles and how to ‘not overlook the small stuff.?
OHS Auto Tech teacher Dan Balsley was very happy for his students.
‘It was a good experience and they got a lot of good training,? he said.
On Friday, Dave Draper, an admissions representative for the University of Northwestern Ohio who also attended the competition, visited the OHS team to deliver $2,000 in scholarship money to each of the students.
Draper said Balsley is ‘one of the best? auto tech teachers he’s met and that he’s ‘like a proud father? when his students win awards and scholarships like these.