November 7 to November 9 IDEAL Industries held their fourth annual National Championship competition. The top Professional and Student/Apprentice electricians competed for the title of the National Champion.
More than 58,000 competitors participated in qualifying rounds all over the US and four Canadian territories. The top 162 (84 professionals and 84 students/apprentices) competitors were flown into Orlando Florida to the Disney Coronado Resort and had the chance to show off their skills and compete for the title and some great prizes.
The competitions were broken down into four different rounds: Championship Weekend Round 1, November 8, 2019 – The thirty (30) Pros and thirty (30) Students with the best score advanced to Round 2; Championship Weekend Round 2, November 8, 2019 – The ten (10) Pros and ten (10) Students with the best cumulative score from Round 1 and Round 2 advanced to Round 3; Championship Weekend Round 3, November 9, 2019 – The five (5) Pros and five (5) Students with the best score cumulative score from Round 1, Round 2 and Round 3 advanced to the Championship Weekend’s Final Round; Championship Weekend Final Round, November 9, 2019 –One (1) Pro and one (1) Student with the best Final Round score was declared the grand prize winners. Prizes were also awarded to second and third place contestants.
Those taking prizes in the PRO CONTESTANTS category: First Place: Greg Anliker received a seventy-five thousand ($75,000 USD) cash prize, awarded as a check and a trophy commemorating his win. Second Place: Seth Agnew received a twenty-five thousand ($25,000 USD) cash prize, awarded as a check commemorating his win. Third Place: Clay Noga received a ten thousand ($10,000 USD) cash prize, awarded as a check commemorating his win.
Those taking prizes in the STUDENT CONTESTANTS catagory: First Place: Jordan Finfrock received a thirty thousand ($30,000 USD) cash prize, awarded as a check and a trophy commemorating his win. Second Place: Benjamin Budd received a twenty thousand ($20,000 USD) cash prize, awarded as a check commemorating his win. Third Place: Marty Evans received a ten thousand ($10,000 USD) cash prize, awarded as a check commemorating his win.
In addition to the Individual Competitions, Team Competitions were held on the first evening. One (1) Contractor Team and one (1) School Team with the best score after the Final competition was declared the grand prize winner, along with team prizes.
First Prize – Contractor Team: Kellenberger Electric 2 (Clay Noga & Keith Runkle) received a forty thousand ($40,000 USD) cash prize, to be divided equally among the two Team competitors, awarded as a check and a trophy commemorating their win. The Contractor Team’s Company owner received twenty thousand ($20,000 USD) in IDEALcash, which can be used to buy IDEAL® products on www.idealind.com and a new 2019 RAM® ProMaster (approximate MSRP is $50,000 USD) with a marketing consultancy package valued at approximately ($12,000 USD).
First Prize – School Team: MPLS JATC Tenacious Turtles (Jacob Thoennes & Angela Bissonnette-Pena) received a twenty thousand ($20,000 USD) cash prize, to be divided equally among the two Team competitors, awarded as a check and a trophy commemorating their win. The School Team’s school received ten thousand ($10,000 USD) in IDEALcash, which can be used to buy IDEAL® products on www.idealind.com. Also, Sponsor will provide five (5) scholarships to the School Team’s school to be awarded to first-year electrical apprentice.
This was the first year IDEAL National held an International Competition which consisted of One (1) Pro with the best score from each country (Greg Anliker- US, Paul Hannania-Canada, Tom Matic-Australia and Jifu Wei- China) who competed. Tom Matic from Australia was the International winner and took home a new 2019 RAM® 1500 pickup truck.
This year’s sponsors of the Nationals were Ram Commercial, Lucas Oil Products Inc., Little Giant Ladder Systems, SIEMENS, Orbit Industries, Inc. and Legrand.
Congratulations to all of the competitors who made it to the National Competition and we look forward to another great year of competitions to make the 2020 IDEAL Nationals even bigger.
You can watch the IDEAL Nationals on ESPN 2 December 15, 2019 at 8pm ET. For more information on Ideal Industries, please visit: https://idealnationals.com/.
