MCC students win nationwide 2025 Mopar CAP Bracket Challenge
OMAHA, Nebraska (Dec. 3, 2025) — Metropolitan Community College students enrolled in the college’s Mopar Career Automotive Program (CAP) returned to Omaha as the champions of the nationwide 2025 Mopar CAP Bracket Challenge late last night. The MCC team led by Daniel Grabowski, Connor Jensen, Nathan Kraemer and Nick Smith won a tight matchup with Eastern Maine Community College (Bangor, Maine) in the finals held at the Mopar National Tech Training in Auburn Hills, Mich., on Tuesday.
As champions of the tournament, the MCC Automotive Training Center on the South Omaha Campus will host the traveling trophy in its showroom in 2026 — a 2018 Dodge Challenger Demon, an 800-plus horsepower vehicle. MCC will also receive a fully stocked Mac Tools utility cart valued at $10,000. Mopar CAP is a nationwide initiative to train and employ entry-level automotive technicians for Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram dealerships throughout the country. To emerge as the national champs of the Bracket Challenge, MCC students competed in a series of curriculum-based and technical challenges against other leading Mopar CAP programs throughout the country. Nearly 100 community and technical colleges throughout the country were eligible to compete. MCC was selected as one of 16 qualifying schools based on the strength of the 20-member team’s 100% employment rate, said MCC Mopar CAP instructor Chad Woodworth.
Since beginning to offer Mopar CAP at the college in 2023, MCC has quickly established itself as one of the nation's premier programs. MCC finished in the Final Four at last year’s inaugural Mopar CAP Bracket Challenge.
“We are extremely proud of the students and instructors from our Mopar CAP program who represent MCC so well at the Bracket Challenge,” Scott Broady, MCC dean of Skilled Trades and Technical Sciences. “Their achievement is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our students, instructors and industry partners. We will look to keep the momentum going and use the examples of these students for future classes.”
The competition began in the beginning of October with MCC advancing through the first round with the higher written test score based on Mopar curriculum against Massachusetts Bay Community College (Wellesley, Mass.). In the next round, MCC scored higher in the mock interview and résumé, ousting 2024 national champion State University of New York (Morrisville, N.Y.) from the contest. To qualify for the finals in Auburn Hills, MCC won diagnostic and technical skills-based challenges versus Kirtland Community College (Grayling, Mich.), hosted at the Stellantis Technical Training Center in Kansas City.
In addition to winning the competition, being able to travel to Mopar’s national training headquarters and get to know students throughout the country working toward the same career goals was a fun part of the experience, Woodworth said.
“Every member of the team contributed to our success, and we had a lot of fun going through this experience together, including the time we spent getting to know students and instructors with other participating schools. We’re grateful to Mopar for our students to have the opportunity to do this during their education — it was valuable for all of us,” Woodworth said.
Visit mccneb.edu/Mopar-CAP for more information about the MCC Mopar Career Automotive Program.