Fresno State soil judging team makes retrun to nationals

The Fresno State soil judging team placed 24th overall in the National Soil Judging Contest hosted by the Soil Science Society of America at Iowa State University (April 25-26).

Junior Juan Magana (Firebaugh) led the team with an 80th-place finish overall and 724 total points, and was followed by senior Curtis Lefler (Hanford, 88th, 705), junior Tanner Ozuna (Hanford, 91st, 693) and junior Adrian Gutierrez (Merced, 95th, 686) in the individual standings.

Other Fresno State students that competed included junior Aaron Delgado (Avenal, 634), senior Desiree Hernandez (Fresno, 628), freshman Emma Fabbri (Bakersfield, 606), and seniors Carlos Javier Flores (Salinas, 579), Alfonso Zarate (Riverdale, 552) and Oswaldo Escobar (Mendota, 547).

Competitors from many of the nation’s most respected collegiate agriculture programs were tested on their ability to identify, evaluate, classify and describe soil profiles.

Virginia Tech took top team honors ahead of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (second) and University of Wisconsin-Platteville (third) at the event that featured individual and team competitions held at the Horticulture Research Station north of Ames, Iowa. Fresno

State qualified for the event based on its third-place overall finish at the Region 6 Soil Judging Competition on November 10 near Humboldt State.

The team is coached by plant science faculty member Michael Sowers who helped guide the team to other national trips in 2018 (15th), 2017 (20th) and 2016 (18th).

More event information is at: https://www.regionvsoiljudging.org and more images are at: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6xHcM-tECN