SPRINGFIELD — Members of the Lincoln Land Community College Ag Club and Livestock Judging Team earned top honors at recent national competitions.
The Ag Club’s Soils Specialist Team was named 2023 National Professional Agricultural Student (PAS) Champions at the National PAS Conference in Des Moines, Iowa. The Soils Team includes Anthony Joiner of Carlinville, Wes Bland of Eldred and Alex Sidener of Rochester, who also placed second, fourth and fifth individually. They are the fifth LLCC team to win the soils event since its creation in 2004.
The Crops Team of Cole Repscher of Taylorville, Wyatt Buckles of Mechanicsburg and Charlie Gum of Tallula placed sixth. The Swine Team of Elizabeth Lee of Springfield, Caedyn Finneran of Chatham and Logan Kearn of Springfield placed eighth.
The College Bowl Team of Logan Kearns, Wyatt Buckles, Alex Sidener, Wes Bland and Anthony Joiner placed fifth.
Two LLCC students competed in the Employment Interview event. Elizabeth Lee placed fifth in Specialty Crop Production, and Cole Repscher placed fourth in Agronomic Production. The students earned the right to compete at the national event by placing in the top three at Illinois PAS contests held earlier this year. This is the 24th year that LLCC students have participated in this national competition, made possible this year by grants from Growmark and the Kreher Farm Perpetual Charitable Trust. LLCC will serve as the host site for the 2024 National PAS Conference.
