Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Soil Judging Team takes 1st in Group Judging at 2011 NE Regionals in Rhode Island

During the week of October 4-7th, University of Rhode Island hosted the Northeast Regional Soil Judging Contest at the beautiful 2300 acre W. Alton Jones Campus. The contest is an annual event, which allows students to practice describing and interpreting soils at different schools each year in the Northeast. The top schools from each region then compete in a National event held the following Spring. This year, students practiced describing soils formed in glacial parent materials, and then competed in individual and group judging events on Friday.

Penn State fielded two teams. Team A consisted of Katie Clark, John Driscoll, Brittany Fabian, and Kyle Medash, while Team B was comprised of April Doroski, Kristen Kyler, and Jess Thomas.

Penn State's Team B, consisting of all-first-timers, placed 1st in Group Judging and 5th overall as a team. Team A did very well too, but did not place.

MARYLAND 1 3843
URI 1 3757
MARYLAND 2 3650
URI 2 3618
PENN STATE 2 3507

Three students placed in the top 20: Kristen Kyler was 14th, April Doroski was 15th and Katie Clark was 20th.

The team has qualified to go nationals this Spring, which will be hosted by West Virginia State University and Penn State soil judging alum, Dr. Jim Thompson.

For more information about the team, and the 50 year plus history of Soil Judging at Penn State, see: http://soiljudging.psu.edu/