Aquinas Students Sweep the 2025 KSPE Bridge Building Contest

First place winner was senior Loren Perbix, '25 whose bridge held an efficiency of 2746.1. Sophomore Brett Baltuska, '27 took second place with a bridge efficiency of 2684.9 and third place finisher was freshman Gabby Bachkora, '28 with a bridge efficiency of 2509.9. Calculated together, all 3 of our students' bridges held over 2500 times the weight of their bridge! Overall, our students captured the top 22 places!

Loren and Brett (with Gabby as the alternate) will have the opportunity to compete in the International Contest held later this spring in Chicago, Illinois.

The object of the contest is to see which students can design, construct and test the most efficient bridge within specifications given by KSPE. The efficiency is defined by the load of the bridge (50,000 grams max.) divided by the mass of the bridge (30 grams max.) Students from multiple Johnson County schools built model bridges that spanned 300 millimeters and were judged on their structural efficiency.  

Rick Hetzel, Drafting and Applied Engineering teacher, has been entering students into the KSPE model bridge building competition for many years (28) and has seen students come back year after year to compete.  

I started by just having a couple kids enter doing a bridge on their own time.  I have changed it and now have the kids research together and build an individual bridge in class.

Way to go Saints! Thank you Mr. Hetzel for providing such awesome opportunities for our students to learn and discover their interests!