By Steve Rickman
Chester County UT Ext. Agent
The Western Region 4-H Livestock Judging contest took place on Thursday, Nov. 12, in Decaturville at Triple P Arena.
For the second year in a row Chester County 4-H had the most participants with 21.
Team members represented Chester County Middle School, Chester County Junior High, Chester County High School and Chester County 4-H Homeschool.
The junior division team of Chris Davis, Brycen Faulkner and Kodie Weaver finished second. Taking fourth place was the junior team of Eli Beshires, James Faulkner, Chloe Foster and Will Davis. Junior teams are made up of fourth and fifth graders. James Faulkner, second, Brycen Faulkner, sixth, and Eli Beshires, seventh, took individual honors in the junior competition by finishing in the top 10 in individual scoring.
In the junior high division, the team of Luke Moody, Xander Swain, Evan Jones and Mackenzie Stoneman finished in sixth place in the division with 13 teams.
The team of Ariel Faulkner, Trenton Barnes and Jameson Rowland finished only five points behind in seventh place. Evan Jones had the 10th overall best score in the junior high division. Only four points behind was newcomer to the 2020 team Jameson Rowland in 12th place. Junior high competition consists of sixth, seventh and eighth graders.
Two senior high teams represented Chester County 4-H in the senior high contest. The top four teams in the senior high division qualify for the state competition at UT Knoxville next June. Team members Tanner Fowler, Paul Jones, Will Kemp and Lucus Tucker can start making travel plans to UT Knoxville because these young men, three freshmen and one sophomore, finished in fourth place only five points ahead of the fifth place team from Henderson County. All four students representing Chester County High School are in Mrs. Tereasa Crouse’s Agriculture Science class. The senior high division was the most competitive division in 2020 with 17 teams. Finishing 12th place was the team of Mari Grace Stoltzfus, Hannah Stoneman and Madison Woofter, all of these girls had to miss a considerable amount of practice time. We will be expecting a lot out of the young ladies in 2021. Taking individual honors in the senior division was Paul Jones who finished sixth overall.
Practice started back in early October with approximately 36 students, and 21 actually made the trip to the contest. Due to COVID-19 and other family losses, this was an extremely difficult fall to navigate. Many thanks go to all 36 of these kids for their strong will to learn and compete. We sure missed the ones that did not get to travel the day of the contest due to circumstances they could not control. Congratulations to everyone on the six teams; you all did a tremendous job representing Chester County 4-H. The future is very bright with the excitement we have in our 4-H program here in Chester County. Thank you to all of the parents and grandparents who provided transportation to practice every week and to the contest. We are very grateful for all your help.
I personally would like to thank Mrs. Tereasa Crouse, our Agriculture teacher/FFA Advisor at Chester County High School, for all her help. She was at every practice and the contest. Her dedication and love for her students made a definite impact on this year’s senior high team who qualified for state.
Contact us at 989-2103, and follow us on Facebook at UT Extension-Chester County.
