A dozen teams, numerous categories, one first place award. On Feb. 9, the MATC Postsecondary/Professional Agricultural Student (PAS) club competed in the 2020 Wisconsin Agricultural Machinery Service Technician Contest and came back with impressive accomplishments.

The competition took place at Southwest Technical College in Fennimore, Wis.

“Twelve teams from around the state of Wisconsin competed in this annual event. Schools that participated include WITC of New Richmond, SWTC of Fennimore and your very own Madison College,” PAS club advisor, Nick Lindloff said in a press release.

MATC took home two notable awards, the first being first prize in the Agricultural Machinery Service Technician (AMSTA) state event. PAS members Joe Hickey and Evan Thomas comprised the winning team; Thomas ranked first overall and Hickey ranked third. Likewise, ninth place was awarded to a combined team of Ben Polman from Madison College and Kristine Penard of Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College.

“They did great; they won,” Lindloff said with a laugh. “That’s pretty tough to do; they competed up to my standards certainly. They were basically the No. 1 AMTSA competitors in the state and as a result, they’ll go to nationals coming up.”

The national PAS contest will be held in Bloomington, Minn. on March 12-21, in which the top six teams in the state have the opportunity to compete.

This success at the competition is not only good news for students, but also the advisors and instructors as it can be used as a benchmark for where the program sits among others and how their teaching is being received.

“More than anything this serves as a report card for myself and the other guys here in the program as instructors on how we’re doing,” Lindloff said. “First place, I’d say that’s a pretty good report card.”