By Joe Hadsall

jhadsall@joplinglobe.com

Four respiratory-care students padded their resumes with a national prize last week.

Dale Benfield, Charity Ezell, Sonny Glover and Sherry Whiteman are students in the respiratory-care program at Franklin Technology Center’s operation at Missouri Southern State University. The students won a national academic competition at the American Association for Respiratory Care’s International Congress.

Walking around the conference, with trophies in hand, the team members found themselves in demand.

“I had three or four job offers, just from walking around with my trophy,” said Benfield, of Joplin. “There were a lot of recruiters there.”

The conference was held Dec. 1-4 in Orlando, Fla. The academic competition was similar to a bowl, with competitors answering questions about the subject.

The four competed against 29 other teams from across the United States. They earned a chance to compete nationally when they won a state competition in May.

The team lost its opening round in the double-elimination tournament, since it hadn’t answered a question in a competition since May.

“We lost by one point,” said Whiteman, of Neosho. “We didn’t know quite what to expect and just had to get our footing.”

Competitors were tested by answering questions in 15 minutes. Questions were about a range of subjects in the field, including anatomy, physiology, microbiology, mechanical ventilation and chemistry.

After the loss, the team hit the books and studied. Whiteman said the members started quizzing one another and watched other rounds of the competition to refresh their memories.

It worked: The team didn’t lose again. It ascended to the final four, competing against teams from Arizona, Colorado and Louisiana, and beat Arizona in the final round.

“I’m still amazed that we won,” Whiteman said.

Richard Saporito, director of postsecondary education, said the win was great not only for the program, but for the students’ careers.