The best bricklayers in Wisconsin crowned in Menasha
MENASHA (WLUK) -- It's being hailed as the Super Bowl of masonry.
Some of the best masons in the state competed in the Spec Mix Bricklayer 500 at Miron Construction in Menasha Wednesday.
The competition tests the speed, skill and stamina of nine teams of masons to build the largest 26-foot-long brick wall, with as few errors as possible, in one hour.
Mason Michael Schlund and mason tender Aaron Kowalski of Kowalski Masonry in Wausau took home top honors with a brick count of 601.
Kowalski Masonry will move on to the “World’s Best Bricklayer” competition in Las Vegas on Feb. 5, 2020.
World Championship prizes include a new Ford F-250 truck, Multiquip mortar mixer, and other prizes totaling more than $125,000.
This is the second year in a row Kowalski Masonry has qualified for the World Championship.
Menasha is one of two dozen cities across North America that hosted Spec Mix Bricklayer 500 competitions.
The event also included a junior competition for eight teams of area high school students. They were given 20 minutes to build an abbreviated version of the wall.
Brian Loasching of Miron Construction says this is the second year the company has held the event.
"It’s great for the exposure for kids. We get over 150 high school students that are going to be coming through today, they get to see the equipment that’s out there to make construction easy, they get hands-on, it’s just a great opportunity for the community and it’s wonderful that they have so many volunteers and so many participants taking part in this," Loasching said.
The winners of that competition were mason Kyle McGrath and mason tender Andrew Kieffer from Kimberly High School.
