Four students participated in the annual Top Tech Challenge held by the Universal Technical Institute in East Chicago on Feb. 15. Two West Delaware teams competed: Sam Ruba and Caleb Zehr and Ryan Fangmann and Carson Hansen.

Out of 28 possible places, Ruba and Zehr received fourth place while Fangmann and Hansen placed 17th. Ruba and Zehr were just one point away from third place, which would have granted them each a $2,000 scholarship to Universal Technical Institute.

To prepare for the competition, the boys met with autos teacher Jason Guyer a few times to brush up on certain skills. At the contest students took a written test and participated in six different skills stations.

“It’s a difficult competition to prepare for because of all the different stations they have, and (it’s) hard to predict what kinds of tests they’ll have,” Guyer said.

Guyer felt the students put forth their best effort.

“You can’t ask anything more of them,” Guyer said. “They didn’t get frustrated or upset when things weren’t going so well in the contest. Some days it just isn’t your day, but I was happy with what they gave me.”