West Point High School takes first place at the Northeast Area FFA Land Judging Contest near Leigh

The Northeast Area FFA Land Judging Contest was held Tuesday, October 8th near Leigh. 436 students from 24 high schools registered that morning at the Colfax County Fairgrounds in Leigh before traveling to the testing site.  The contest was held on ground owned by Terry Kudera, six miles north of Leigh on Hwy 57 and 2 west.

A team from West Point High School finished first with the top score of 977 points.  Team members are:  Evie Schlickbernd, Paige Rolf, Emmie Dvorak, and Aspen Lund.

A team from Pender High School placed second with a score of 970.  Third place went to North Bend with a score of 929 points.  Teams from North Bend and West Point came in 4th and 5th.  The top 6 teams that will participate in the State competition are from West Point, Pender, North Bend, Blair, Logan View, and Wisner-Pilger.  The State Land Judging competition will take place in the Tecumseh area on October 23rd.

The top individual award went to Paige Rolf of West Point with a total score of 361.  Katelyn Smith of Logan View was second, Dalton Blaha of North Bend was third, Hannah Murray of North Bend was fourth, and Charles Schmedding of Pender came in fifth.

The site provided good diversity in soils and landscape positions for the students.  The contest helps the students make informed decisions regarding soil utilization in the future.  Scoring was completed the following day at the Lower Elkhorn Natural Resources District (LENRD) office in Norfolk.

The high schools participating were:  Allen, Blair, Elkhorn Valley-Tilden, Emerson-Hubbard, Howells-Dodge, Humphrey, Laurel-Concord-Coleridge, Clarkson-Leigh, Logan View, Lyons-Decatur Northeast, Newman Grove, Norfolk, North Bend, Oakland-Craig, Osmond, Pender, Pierce, Randolph, Scribner-Snyder, Stanton, Tekamah-Herman, Wayne, West Point-Beemer, and Wisner-Pilger.

The LENRD, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Leigh High School, and the Nebraska FFA Land Judging Committee organized and sponsored the contest.