Reporting from the International Lineman's Rodeo Association results, T&D World and Doug Brown at KWHI.

The best young line workers in the country spent the middle of October in the Kansas City area climbing poles against the clock. When the scores came in, two apprentices from Walton EMC in Georgia sat at the top of the board.

Harry Ruiz of Walton EMC finished first overall among 393 apprentices at the 2026 International Lineman's Rodeo. His teammate Phillip Mork finished second. A third Walton apprentice, Mason Tolbert, finished fourth.

What Happened

The rodeo ran October 14 to 16, with the awards banquet at the Overland Park Convention Center, according to T&D World. The official results list 285 journeyman teams and 393 apprentices.

Journeyman teams are three people, two journeyman line workers and a groundman, and they are ranked on total time across the events. Apprentices compete as individuals and are scored on field events and a written test.

The Apprentice Leaderboard

The top 10 apprentices, per the official results:

  1. Harry Ruiz, Walton EMC
  2. Phillip Mork, Walton EMC
  3. Lane Magnuson, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative
  4. Mason Tolbert, Walton EMC
  5. Dean DeMoss, PG&E
  6. Logan Self, Dominion Energy
  7. Kevin Christ, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative
  8. Mitch Wittman, Ameren Missouri
  9. Kayden Horton, Hydro One
  10. Clayton Woodley, IBEW LU 1439/11th District

That list reads like a map of the industry. Two cooperatives, three investor-owned utilities, a Canadian utility and a union training district, all in the same top 10.

Walton's Run

Walton EMC came in with momentum. At the 31st Georgia Lineman's Rodeo earlier this year, Walton apprentices won 13 of the 15 event awards against a field of 143 and swept the top five overall spots. Tolbert finished second there and Mork third. Walton fielded 31 people for that rodeo, the co-op's biggest team ever.

Adam Simmons, Walton's safety and training instructor, explained why the co-op puts so much into it. "It takes strength, skill and focus to succeed in this profession," he said. He said training and competing together builds the confidence and coordination that the co-op's customer-owners depend on.

A utility worker in a bucket truck working on power lines beside a green field
Photo by Roger Starnes Sr on Unsplash

Bluebonnet's Apprentices

Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative in Central Texas put two apprentices in the top 10.

Lane Magnuson, a fourth-year apprentice out of the Giddings service center, finished third overall with a perfect field events score and a 93 on the written test, according to KWHI. Kevin Christ, a fourth-year apprentice from the Brenham service center, finished seventh with a 94 on the written test.

Two more Bluebonnet fourth-year apprentices placed in the cooperative division. Carter Brymer of Giddings finished in the top 25 and Tucker Saegert of Bastrop in the top 50.

Bluebonnet's journeyman team of Michael Guajardo, David Martin and Kenneth Roush from the Bastrop service center posted a perfect field events score. They finished ninth of 46 teams in the cooperative division and 47th of 285 overall.

General Manager Matt Bentke said the co-op is "proud of everyone on Bluebonnet's rodeo team" and recognized the time and effort they put into the event and into their daily work.

The Journeyman Board

Southern California Edison and IBEW Local 47 won the journeyman competition. Vincent Sanchez, Justin Mapel and Matthew Katz finished in 12:21.36, per the official results.

Duke Energy finished second with Miles Bell, Justin McCarson and Daniel Burrell, about nine seconds back. Ameren Illinois finished ninth.

Where the Talent Came From

Read the top 10 lists by state and a few regions stand out.

Georgia. Walton EMC placed three apprentices in the top four. Snapping Shoals EMC, another Georgia cooperative, finished sixth among journeyman teams. Georgia's co-ops came to Kansas City with depth.

Texas. Bluebonnet put two apprentices in the top 10. Pedernales Electric Cooperative put two journeyman teams there, at eighth and tenth. Both are Central Texas cooperatives.

California. Southern California Edison and IBEW Local 47 took first and fifth among journeyman teams. A team from IBEW Local 47 and Dry Canyon finished third, the contractor Sturgeon Electric California finished fourth and PG&E's Dean DeMoss was the fifth-ranked apprentice.

Duke and Dominion. Duke Energy put two teams in the journeyman top 10, at second and seventh, and Dominion Energy's Logan Self finished sixth among apprentices.

Utilities, cooperatives, contractors and union locals all made the board.

Why It Matters

Every rodeo team is a payroll. The apprentices on that leaderboard are in multi-year programs that pay them while they learn, then turn them into journeyman line workers who build and maintain the grid in their home service territories.

The demand for that skill set is national. The Alliance for America's Skilled Trades, launched in July by BlackRock, Carhartt, Ford and Google, puts the number of skilled trades positions that could go unfilled by 2030 at 2.1 million, including electrical workers. Utilities and co-ops answer that with apprenticeship programs, training yards and teams like the ones in Kansas City.

The names on this year's board are the line workers the industry is counting on to lead crews next. Walton, Bluebonnet, Duke, Dominion, Ameren and PG&E are already investing in them.

Sources

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