By: Victoria Pilger
DENVER – The Texas A&M University Wool Judging Team won the 2014 National Western Collegiate Wool Judging Contest on Jan. 16.
The Aggie maroon team defeated second place Texas Tech black team, followed by Texas Tech red team, Texas A&M white team and Montana State University, respectively.
“It was a great trip and we’re extremely excited about the win. However, the remainder of our contest season is fairly short lived, so we’re already focused on finishing out the year strong,” said Tanner Wieghat, coach and animal science graduate student.
The team is coordinated by Dr. Shawn Ramsey. Assistant coaches include Garrett Stribling, Emily Von Edwins and Emily Wiggs.
Back row from left: Dr. Ramsey, Erika Wiggs, Logan Speck, Emily Von Edwins, Brandi Ortolon, Tana Luna, Courtney Hancock, Garrett Stribling, Sierra Francis, Shelby Martin, Mariel McFadin, Tanner Wieghat
Front row from left: Kylie Bennett, Brooke Orsak, Alexis Roach, Bridget O’Brien, Kade Hodges
Team members are Kylie Bennett, from Riesel, Sierra Francis, from McKinney, Courtney Hancock, from San Antonio, Kade Hodges, from Sterling City, Tana Luna, from Troy, Shelby Martin, from Llano, Mariel McFadin, from La Vernia, Brooke Orsak, from Pearland, Brandi Ortolon, from Edna, Alexis Roach, from College Station, and Logan Speck, from Early, all freshmen animal science majors; and Bridget O’Brien, freshman agribusiness major from Boerne.
In individual competition, four Texas A&M team members finished in the top 10 overall including first high individual won by Hodges. Francis finished second, Roach won fourth, followed by Orsak in tenth place.
The team competes at the San Antonio Livestock Exposition in February and at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in March to close out the spring competition season.
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Victoria Pilger is a junior Animal Science major with a minor in Agricultural Communications and Journalism from Bryan, Texas.
For more information regarding news from the Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Texas A&M University, please contact Courtney Coufal at cacoufal@tamu.edu or (979) 845-1542.