State Range Judging Held at Red Cloud

Over 375 students, and an additional 20 adults, and professionals competed in the 2010 State Range Judging Contest held near Red Cloud on September 29th. Over 40 volunteers representing the Nebraska Section-Society for Range Management; University of Nebraska Extension-Webster County; USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service, Farm Service Agency, and Twin Valley RC&D; as well as the Lower Republican Natural Resources District helped conduct and score the contest. The State contest followed six Area range judging contests that were held earlier across Nebraska around mid September. At these contests the participants test their skills in plant identification, plant characteristics, range site and condition determinations as well as solving range management questions. Educational programs on UNL Range Education, Willa Cather Prairie, and the Republican River Water Project were presented during the time between the contest and the results. Engraved plaques and ribbons are awarded to the top performers at each contest. Freshman and sophomore students competed in the Junior Division. There were 45 teams and over 180 individuals competing in that division. The top individual was Cole Gibbens of West Holt High School at Atkinson. The top Junior team was also from West Holt High School and consisted of Cole Gibbens, Dylan Laible, Daniel Frickel and Marcus Marcellus. Chase County Imperial High School placed second followed by Ord High School and then Burwell High School. Locally, Superior High School teams got 12th and 25th with Red Cloud coming in 14th. Blue Hill teams finished 19th, 32nd and 41st respectively. Individually, top placings from Red Cloud included: Jacob Nikodym placed 25th and Tanner Rupprect 34th. Blue Hill; Chase Golter 46th and Maci Coffee 64th. Superior; Lauren Rempe 32nd, Gavin Caldwell 51st, Trent Richardson 55th, and Casey Shipman 66th. The Senior Division competition was open to 11th and 12th graders. There were 46 teams and 177 individuals competing in the Senior division. The top individual scorer was Johnny Ference of Ord High School. In the Senior team competition, Ord took first team honors. The winning team consisted of Johnny Ference, Kris Hornickel, Christie Schauer and Tom Krcilek. Sargent High School came in second, followed by West Holt and Diller Odell. Locally, Superior High School came in 7th, 16th and 27th respectively. Blue Hill placed 30th and 33rd while Red Cloud placed 32nd. Individually, Bethany Brittenham from Superior placed 3rd and received a $500 scholarship from CASNR. Erin Kinley from Blue Hill placed 8th and also received a $500 scholarship. Others placing highly were: Victoria Simonson (39th), Rebecca Genung (41st), Andrew Brinnenham (53rd) and Justin Petsch (57th) all from Superior. First place in the Professional Division went to David Gibbens of Atkinson with Kevin Wetovick from Fullerton taking 2nd. Melissa Bonifas from Blue Hill placed 8th. In addition to the annual sponsorship by the Nebraska Section-Society for Range Management, this year’s contest was sponsored by University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension-Webster County, USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Lower Republican