LBCC’s livestock judging team competed in the Western Fall Classic in Medford, Oregon on Oct. 14 at the Jackson County Expo.
LBCC beat out universities Fresno State and Chico State for first place in a competition that featured 30 competitors and six teams from Oregon and California. This is one of the few competitions on the team’s calendar that allows them to compete directly against universities. It was also the first time in program history that LBCC defeated a university in an event, winning by 90 points over Fresno State.
“Fresno State and Chico [State] have been typically pretty competitive. We’ve been close before, we’ve been competitive, and very close to winning a time or two. But this is the first year that we did beat them and had a pretty good spread from a point standpoint,” said coach Clay Weber.
“It actually feels really good, and we’re proud of them. We know that this group is pretty special.”
Along with the top overall prize as a team, six LBCC students finished in the top 10 in the individual competition. Noa Taipin claimed first place, Bailey Samper won third, Jared Wolf won fourth, Madison Morgan earned sixth, Mikayla Duchi won seventh and Kevin Snyder claimed ninth.
In the beef category, LBCC claimed first place overall with Duchi winning first, Taipin claiming third, Wolf in fourth, and Morgan in fifth in the individual competition.
The team won first overall in the sheep category and swept the top three slots of the individual competitions, with Samper winning first, Taipin finishing second, and Morgan finishing third.
In goats, the team managed to earn second place with Wolf winning third and Chris Ralston rounding out the top five in fifth.
The team claimed second place in swine, with Morgan also winning second in the individual competition.
In oral reasons the team won first and claimed three of the top five spots in the individual competition with Samper earning second, Morgan winning third, and Snyder claiming fifth.
The team was excited about their performance and felt that they are on the right track for future competitions.
“The whole team performed really solid. It was a huge confidence boost for us just getting a win under our belt going into the national contest we have in a couple weeks,” said Wolf.
The team has several events and competitions coming up within the next month. This includes the Colorado State Mock Contest on Oct. 21, the American Royal Intercollegiate and Junior College Livestock Judging Contest in Kansas City, Missouri on Oct. 27, and the North American International Livestock Judging Contest on Nov. 15 in Louisville, Kentucky.