A group of NRES undergraduate students coached and organized by Dr. Robert Darmody recently took first place in the American Society of Agronomy's Region 3 Soil Judging Contest.
The 54th annual ASA Region 3 Soil Judging Contest was hosted by Purdue University on October 7-10. Teams from six Universities competed on Friday as groups and on Saturday as individuals.
The University of Illinois placed second to Purdue in the group contest, and first in the team judging as well as first overall. This marks the first time a team from the University of Illinois has won the overall contest. Illinois students who placed in the top ten of the 64 students who competed included Allison Keever at 3rd and Jason Ackerson at 4th. Other team members include: David Mayer, Matt Runquist, Zach Robinson, Lauren Behnke, Allison Husko, Levi Daly, Morgan Davis, Oscar Gonzalez, Christine Chung, Leo Kim, and Heather Grames. The University of Illinois will compete at the National Contest in Lubbock, Texas in March because of their placement in the regional contest. The other two top three teams from our region, Northern Illinois and University of Wisconsin Platteville, will also compete. Professor Darmody and Jenwei Tsai are the coaches of the University's team. Allison Keever is the winner of the Burt Ray award this year. The award goes to the best soil judger in the state of Illinois, based on their performance in the regional contest.
Congratulations and great job to all concerned!