Agronomy team earns return trip to Nationals: Five teams place first in districts, multiple continue to state for Lind-Ritzville FFA

The Lind-Ritzville FFA Chapter is continuing its tradition in excellence and achievement in the Agronomy contest, as four more FFA members have qualified to compete at the National FFA Convention this fall.

The state Agronomy competition was held on March 25, and the Lind-Ritzville chapter had two teams compete. The first place team, and the members moving onto Nationals are, Kate Schell, Tyler O’Brien, Dinah Gadberry and Taylor Kulm.

The second team placed sixth at state and team members are TyAnn Tellefson, Raeann Hoeft, Nathan Naught, Tara Tellefson and Abby Gering.

Individiually in the Agronomy state contest, Schell placed third overall, O’Brien finished fourth, Gadberry scored fifth, TyAnn Tellefson finished eighth, Hoeft placed 11th and Kulm placed 12th.

The Lind-Ritzville Chapter also recently competed in the District competition, and had five teams place first, with four of them traveling to compete in state.

In Farm Business Management, two teams competed and placed first and second, with one team moving on to state. The team members are Hugh Hennings, Brian Campbell, Cort Ruzicka, Dane Wahl, Tyler O’Brien, Ryan Frederick, Matt Leffel and Alan Field.

The Marketing Plan team of Kallie Harder, Tessa Jantz and Tessa O’Brien also placed first in districts and are moving on to state. Also moving on to state are the second place team of Madison Harder, Hoeft and Felicia Ziemer.

The Ag Issues team also placed first in districts. The team members moving on to compete at the state level are Katie Manke, Schell, Andrew Witt, Morgan Shields, Gadberry, Erica Leffel and Holly Nygren.

In the First Year Member competition, two teams placed first and third and both continue to state.

The team members are Peyton Kiel, Bryce Esser, Alisha Baker, Alarah Pierce-Pulliam, Rachel Schell, Camden Smith, Laurel Hayes, Naught, Emily Rosen and Hailey Roderick.

In the Prepared Public Speaking contest, Hallie Jo Galbreath placed first and earned a trip to the state competition.

Tara Tellefson is also moving on to state in the Creed contest, as she finished third in districts. Gering also competed in the Creed contest at the district level.

Rounding out the participants in districts is O’Brien, who competed individually in the Job Interview contest.