USU Eastern Students Earn Two Gold Medals at 2026 SkillsUSA National Competition

PRICE, Utah — Utah State University Eastern is the home of four gold medalists from the 2026 SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference in Atlanta, Georgia on June 1-5.

Leah Cannon earned USU Eastern’s fourth consecutive gold medal in the welding competition. Cannon faced more than 30 other students from across the nation in the postsecondary division. Cannon wasn’t the only USU Eastern student to bring home gold. The welding fabrication team of Claire Pascoe, Ushotosh Shakya and Hunter Pero also earned a gold medal by taking first place in their event.

“I loved going out to Atlanta for nationals,” Cannon said. “It is such a cool opportunity to meet people in the industry and to just get exposure as a welder. Everybody that I met was very supportive and so many people put work into making the competition the best that it could be.”

According to Austin Welch, associate professor of welding at USU Eastern, Cannon may be the first female winner of the SkillsUSA Welding competition in the history of the event. Cannon was proud of the accomplishment, especially because she felt she improved her skills with each round of the competition.

“My biggest takeaway from this competition was that hard work yields results,” Cannon said. “I was proud of the progress that I made regardless of the outcome of the competition. The time and effort I put into my training was worthwhile and it’s awesome to have this end result.”

Cannon credits her instructors at USU Eastern with helping her find the confidence and mental toughness to push through mistakes and keep a level head during the competition.

The fabrication team bested the other 29 teams in this year’s postsecondary division. This is USU Eastern’s 9th gold medal in welding fabrication, having won the inaugural competition in 2008 and again in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023 and now 2026. The competition was the culmination of months of training.

“Competing at the national level was certainly not an easy task,” Pero said. “It took months of practice including weekends and many late nights. Our team dynamic I think is what really pushed us to winning at the finish line along with the great instructors at USUE that helped guide us to success and the countless hours put into making prints for practice builds.

Pero said he gained a greater appreciation for the USU Eastern welding program after competing in the competition and seeing how well they fared against the other 29 teams.

“The USU Eastern instructors aren't just there to teach, they are willing to help guide you to the highest level of success possible if you’re willing to put in the effort,” he said. “Their personal experience in the field and effort to learn about the constant evolving industry is what really sets apart the program from others.”

Prior to competing in the SkillsUSA national competition, Cannon and the team of Pascoe, Pero and Shakya also won first place in their respective events at the SkillsUSA Utah Skills and Leadership Conference on March 26 and 27.

Two other USU Eastern students also had top three finishes in this state competition. Sage Yazzie finished in second place in the welding sculpture event, while Kolton Finch finished in third place in the welding competition.

Located in picturesque Price, Utah State University Eastern provides the best of both worlds for students­ — the personalized attention and small student-to-faculty ratio of a small-town college, with the educational opportunities and resources of a large university. USU Eastern boasts student government opportunities, clubs and programs like theater, choir and the award-winning student newspaper “The Eagle,” as well as its own athletic program. USU Eastern provides personal or professional development training, technical education in Health Professions, Technical Careers and Business, as well as associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees and certificates of proficiency. Learn more at eastern.usu.edu.