Three students from Lincoln Land Community College took home medals in the 2025 Illinois SkillsUSA Championship.
Held in Peoria from April 24-26, the championship offered students throughout the state a chance to show off the results of hard training in a variety of crafts. A total of 44 LLCC students competed last month across seven categories: automotive and diesel technologies, heavy equipment operator, HVAC, welding, culinary arts, and baking and pastry arts.
Gabriel Sarabia of Lincoln won bronze in culinary arts and Garrett Sheehan, of Concord, won bronze in heavy equipment operator, beating out numerous students to earn top 3 in their respective categories. But it was Chatham resident Mary Wichman who took won the gold medal in baking and pastry arts.
As part of the competition, Wichman baked cream puffs, snickerdoodle cookies and an apple pie and decorated a pre-made cake. The competition tested her technical skill and execution, product quality, creativity and presentation, her time management and her ability to adhere to industry standards.
To prepare, Wichman says she practiced recipes for consistency and taught herself to make the iconic lattice crust of apple pies.
Before studying baking and pastry arts, Mary Wichman had graduated from LLCC with an associate in fine arts with the intention of transferring to a university to pursue a degree in secondary education. It was a job at the Apple Barn in Chatham, and therein the chance to create desserts, which uncovered her passion for baking and pastry arts.
“I never thought I would be in a baking competition,” she laughed. “But I’m so proud of what I’ve accomplished at LLCC. From winning my first competition to graduating from this program with honors, it’s nice to see all that hard work paying off.”
Winning gold qualified Wichman to compete at the SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference to be held at the World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia, from June 23 until 27. She now turns her attention to preparing for Georgia, which will require her to create seven recipes.
