Wessington Springs Hosts 14 Area Schools At Land And Range Contest, Local Teams Earn First Place in Range, Second in Land
Wessington Springs played host to 179 students from 14 area FFA chapters at the Central Area FFA Land and Range Contest last Wednesday, September 28. Students competed for the right to represent South Dakota at the National contest to be held in 2023 in Oklahoma City and members of the Wessington Springs FFA Range team won that right by placing first, with the Land team placing second.
“The students did outstanding,” said Brady Duxbury, Wessington Springs Schools Ag Instructor/FFA Advisor. “Fourteen out of 15 students on the Land side placed individually and we got 2nd as a team. On the Range side we got 1st place and will be going to Oklahoma this spring for the National Range competition.”
The site, always chosen by the NRCS staff, are selected for a variety of reasons including accessibility for busses and vehicles as well as landowners willing to allow pits to be dug on their land. This year, the contest was held on land owned by Jeff and Tricia Messmer.
“We are very fortunate to be living in a community that gives students the opportunity to learn and compete by utilizing their land,” Duxbury stated. “Great sites have a variety of soil structures and plant life in order to make them unique enough to see different things in the soil profile but also healthy enough to see a variety of plant life for the Range contest purposes as well.”
Duxbury said that current drought conditions presented its own set of unique challenges for students during competition.
“On the Range side, many of the plants that we identify were dried up and had blown away. Many of our cool season plants were completely dead with little to no leaves and our warm season plants were much drier than we typically expect for this season,” explained Duxbury. “On the Land side there is opportunity and difficulty when soils are this dry. One positive is that sites that would normally not be available due to underground water conditions become easier to access in dry years. On the other hand, it becomes very difficult to access claypan sites when there is almost no water in the soil, which can create difficulty.”
Despite the severely dry conditions doled out by Mother Nature, Duxbury said that the NRCS works diligently to ensure that students have a quality contest regardless of the weather conditions.
“They did a great job doing that this year as well,” he said.
Looking forward to the trip to nationals in Oklahoma City next year, Duxbury, a 2008 graduate of Wessington Springs High School, points out that he has not yet been to Oklahoma as an Ag teacher.
“It is fitting to have the opportunity to go for my first advisor trip in the place where I last qualified as a student to go to Oklahoma,” he said. “I am honored to have the opportunity, excited about what the team can do this year and the success we will have in the years to come. We have great young people in the Wessington Springs FFA program who are primed and ready to do wonderful things. This was a fun way to start the year!”
The Central Area Land and Range contest is sponsored by the Jerauld County Conservation District, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Jerauld County Extension and the Wessington Springs High School FFA.
Of the 116 students competing in Land and 63 competing in Range, the Wessington Springs FFA Chapter excelled in the contest, with local results published below.
Team Range
1. Wessington Springs
2. Hitchcock/Tulare
3. Wolsey/Wessington
4. Sunshine Bible Academy
5. Sully Buttes
6. Bowdle
7. Miller Individual Range Gold
1. Kristie Munsen, 565, Wessington Springs
2. Austin Schimke, 520 , Wessington Springs
3. Carter Binger, 514, Hitchcock/ Tulare
4. Mason Battun, 473, Hitchcock/ Tulare
5. Cole Schroder, 467, Hitchcock/ Tulare
6. Blake Larson, 466, Wessington Springs
7. Landen Christensen, 456, Wessington Springs Silver
8. Ridge Roduner, 447, Wessington Springs
9. Tate French, 406, Wolsey/ Wessington
10. Dakota Boersma, 403, Sunshine Bible Academy
11. Raylee Fagerhaug, 396, Wessington Springs
12. Kate Hamilton, 395, Wolsey/ Wessington
13. Harley Roberts, 392, Wolsey/ Wessington
14. Jimmy Burma, 389, Sunshine Bible Academy Bronze
15. Garrett Anson, 382, Wessington Springs
16. Abigail Kolousek, 373, Wessington Springs
17. Kelcie Roberts, 368, Wolsey/ Wessington
18. Daraby Boersma, 343, Sunshine Bible Academy
19. Tanner Fox, 341, Sunshine Bible Academy
20. Keegan Haider, 340, Wolsey/ Wessington
21. Natasha Appel, 337, Sunshine Bible Academy Team Land
1. Hitchcock/Tulare
2. Wessington Springs
3. Wolsey/Wessington
4. Miller
5. Howard
6. Parkston
7. Northwestern Area
8. Mitchell
9. Gettysburg
10. Platte/Geddes
11. Wagner Gold
1. Nick Tollefson, 429, Hitchcock/ Tulare
2. Luke Larson, 425, Wessington Springs
3. Blaze Binger, 406, Hitchcock/ Tulare
4. Emma Fritzche, 405, Miller
5. Mya Boomsma, 401, Wolsey/ Wessington
6. Griffin Clubb, 401, Howard
7. Katelyn Schroeder, 400, Hitchcock/Tulare
8. Avery Orth, 396, Wessington Springs
9. Caleb Richmond, 389, Wolsey/ Wessington
10. Preston Wipf, 386, Hitchcock/Tulare
11. Ella Johnson, 384, Hitchcock/Tulare
12. Remie Roduner, 374, Wessington Springs
13. Max Klein, 369, Wessington Springs
14. Ella Fagerhaug, 368, Wessington Springs Silver
1. Braxton Jacobs, 359, Hitchcock/Tulare
2. Gavin Brandenburg, 358, Wessington Springs
3. Robert Hine, 356, Wessington Springs
4. Cooper Cole, 356, Hitchcock/ Tulare
5. Corey Leisy, 352, Miller
6. Carissa Scheel, 350, Wessington Springs
7. Regan Lutter, 348, Hitchcock/ Tulare
8. Ella Haven, 346, Northwestern
9. Carter Gaikowski, 343, Wessington Springs
10. Morgon Bottum, 340, Hitchcock/Tulare
11. Braydin Labore, 339, Wessington Springs
12. Ethan Rearick, 336, Wolsey/ Wessington
13. Sam Poncelow, 335, Wessington Springs
14. Hannah Heezen, 331, Wessington Springs Bronze
15. Quaden Culbert, 331, Parkston
16. Brylee Fuhrman, 330, Wolsey/Wessington
17. Caroline Witte, 329, Wessington Springs
18. Eli Batin, 328, Miller
19. Sienna Stoner, 327, Hitchcock/Tulare
20. Bobbi Eide, 324, Gettysburg
21. Sawyer Nelson, 322, Wolsey/ Wessington
22. Elle Goehring, 320, Parkston
23. Tanner Ewalt, 316, Northwestern
24. Austin Severson, 312, Northwestern
25. Haidyn Huss, 311, Miller
26. Kolt Koepsell, 308, Howard
27. Mercedes Jones, 306, Wessington Springs
28. Hailey Kizer, 306, Howard