Two out of four of Gibson Southern’s Future Farmers of America Livestock Skillathon teams made it to the State competition, which took place on Saturday, October 5. This is the FFA chapter’s second year competing in the Livestock Skillathon, and its first time going to State.
Practices for the area competition began early in the school year with a set study schedule.
“We started at the beginning of the year, and we would practice three days of the week for an hour in the mornings,” state competitor Maci Spindler said. “It was Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7 a.m., and then we practiced all the way up to this last Saturday.”
During those practices, the team studied the areas that they knew they would need to know.
“We had to know the meat cuts and stuff, and how to cook those, and where it comes from,” senior MacKenzie Stuckey said. “And, then different breeds, different machinery and tools and grains and all that.”
The FFA chapter sent four different teams to the area competition. Out of those four teams, two qualified for State, coming in at both 3rd and 8th places. The team in 8th place qualified for State because there were teams in the top five that dropped out.
The first team to qualify and make it to state included juniors Maci Spindler and Abby Brown, as well as sophomores Grady Mowrer and Audrey Spindler. The second team that succeeded in making it to state consisted of sophomore Meredith Mann and seniors Madison Hamilton, Meredith Johnson and Stuckey.
With ag teacher Jessie Mraz out on maternity leave, it was up to the teams and FFA officers to secure the necessities needed to be able to compete at Purdue University. According to Rexing, the State-bound teams had to reserve a hotel and find a driver for the competition.
The teams left for Purdue immediately after the walk-through parade before the football game on Friday, October 4, and did not arrive back at the high school until 9 p.m. on Saturday.
With this being the chapter’s first time sending a team to State, the competitors did not know exactly what to expect. The teams walked around tables and areas with different items on them and were scored on their accuracy of being able to identify different grains, wools and machinery. There was also a team activity that tested their interpersonal skills.
“We had to practice a lot of leadership and working together as a team,” Maci Spindler said.
Team one finished in 29th place while team two finished 33rd. There were a total of 37 teams at the State competition.
Rexing expressed how happy she was about how the teams did.
“I am just proud of them that they made it to State,” Rexing said. “I think that’s an accomplishment right there. They put in a lot of work and a lot of effort to study for the District competition, and then overall to go to State.”
The State contestants also enjoyed having the opportunity to represent Gibson Southern at Purdue.
“I thought we did really good,” Maci Spindler said. “I think that with not knowing everything, we got all the stuff that we knew was going to be on it (the competition). I think we did really good on the parts we were not as confident in.”
The feeling of doing well is mutual among all the contestants that made it to State.
“I think our teams did good because we really did not know what we were going into,” Stuckey said.
