Source: Mickey Ransom, 785-532-7203, mdransom@k-state.edu
Photo available. Contact media@k-state.edu or 785-532-6415.
News release prepared by: Katie Starzec, kstarzec@k-state.edu

Thursday, April 9, 2009

K-STATE SOIL JUDGING TEAM TAKES FIRST AT NATIONAL COMPETITION

MANHATTAN -- The Kansas State University Soil Judging Team won the National Soil Judging Contest for the second year in a row, taking first place overall and first in group judging.

Twenty-three teams from around the country competed at the 2009 event, March 26-April 3, at the host school, Missouri State University.

The K-State team is coached by Mickey Ransom, professor of agronomy, who is assisted by Paul Hartley, graduate student in agronomy from Emporia.

K-State team members include:

Kim Kerschen, freshman in agronomy, Garden Plain, who took 12th place in individual judging; Kelsey McGie, junior in milling science management, Iola, who placed ninth in individual judging; Stuart Watts, sophomore in agronomy, Manhattan; and Angela Tran, senior in agronomy, Prairie Village.

From out of state: Kerri Neugebauer, sophomore in agronomy, Grandview, Mo.; and Timothy Foster, freshman in agronomy, Middlebury, Vt.

Purdue University took second place in the competition, West Virginia University took third, the University of Maryland took fourth, and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville placed fifth.

The 2009 National Soil Judging Contest was assisted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resource Conservation Service. The contest is an activity of the American Society of Agronomy and the Soil Science Society of America.