UW-Platteville's Sarah Smith Helps Soils Team Place Third at Regional Competition, Advances to Nationals

2011 Nov 14

Sarah Smith of Ashton a Soil and Crop Science major helped the University of Wisconsin-Platteville place third in the Students in Agronomy, Soils and Environmental Sciences Region III Collegiate Soils competition on Oct. 26-29. The contest was hosted by UW-Madison and held near Richland Center, Wis. The contest consists of four individual sites and two group-judged sites where students describe and evaluate soils and landscapes in order to classify and determine appropriate land use based on soil properties. Participant's scores are based on the agreement between their descriptions and those of the professional soil scientists serving as contest officials. Teams qualifying for the American Society of Agronomy National competition were Purdue University (first place), Northern Illinois University (second place), and UW-Platteville (third place). The national competition is to be held in April, 2012 in Morgantown, West Va.

The high individual from UW-Platteville was Brandon Hall, Victoria, Ill., a soil and crop science major, who placed ninth in the individual competition. The UW-Platteville team also placed second in the group-judging portion of the contest.

The UW-Platteville Collegiate Soils team has qualified for the SASES National Soils competition 40 years in a row, representing the longest consecutive qualifying streak of any university in the country. The team is coached by Dr. Chris Baxter, Associate Professor of Soil and Crop Science.