BEC Journeyman Team Win Best in State

BEC walked away with three first-place and one third-place prize at the 2018 Texas Lineman’s Rodeo Association (TLRA) Rodeo held Saturday, July 21 in Seguin, Texas. BEC journeymen Scott Downum, Jesse Salazar and Javier Salazar won first place in “Overall Journeyman,” “Journeyman Mystery Event Number One” and “Cooperatives” categories. In the “45+ or Senior Division,” BEC journeymen John Hernandez, Brad Downum and Kenneth Alf placed third.
 
“This is simply outstanding and I couldn’t be prouder of their accomplishments! Our linemen had to compete against our sister cooperatives, municipalities and investor owned utilities linemen—a total of 49 journeyman teams and 114 apprentices competing this year,” John Rush, BEC manager of transmission and distribution operations, said. “To have one of our journeymen teams win first place overall is a tremendous accomplishment. All of our linemen and apprentices put forth their best efforts and our cooperative is extremely proud of these men.”
 
The TLRA Rodeo takes place every July in Seguin and consists of timed skills tests for apprentices and lineworkers in various electric utilities—contractors, cooperatives, investor owned utilities and municipals. Lineman not only have to complete a task in a certain amount of time, they must also perform it correctly.
 
“BEC has supported the Texas Lineman Rodeo over the years as a forum for linemen, apprentices and support staff to interact with their peers, share work practices and continually improve the skills necessary and efficiently to maintain our electric grids,” Rush explained.
 
The BEC journeyman team completed their winning mystery event with a perfect score in 18 minutes, 1 second. They were also the only team with perfect scores in all of the five events in which they competed.
 
BEC also competed in the cooking and apprentice categories.
 
“Kudos are due to all of the competitors, judges and support staff as the temperature during this year’s rodeo peaked at 102 degrees as the competition was taking place. A special thank you to Guadalupe Valley Electric Cooperative for organizing and hosting the Texas Lineman Rodeo,” Rush said.
 
“I encourage the public to attend next year and watch all of the competitors demonstrate their skills and comradery towards each other. See you next year!” he added.
 
The wins not only mean the BEC service area the best lineworkers in the state, it also brings with it scholarships from Northwest Lineman College and Texas A&M Engineering TEEX to help young people in the BEC service territory prepare for a career in the electrical line worker industry. For more information on the scholarship, visit tlra.org/documents/scholarship
 
For a complete list of results, visit tlra.org/Home/Results

Posted Wednesday, July 25, 2018