High scoring: Wyo youth break records, earn top honors through opening weekend of NWSS
Denver, Colo. – As the 111th National Western Stock Show (NWSS) comes into full swing, youth and adults alike from Uinta County to Crook County are representing Wyoming in the nationally recognized event from Jan. 7-22.
The opening weekend of NWSS featured numerous events, including the Western National Roundup 4-H and FFA contests, the Red Angus Junior Show and the Catch-A-Calf Show.
Catch-A-Calf
Natrona County 4-H’er Michaela Fleming competed in the Catch-A-Calf show with her steer Concho that she caught in January 2016, earning 10th place overall.
She explains that program participants first catch their calf at NWSS during one of the rodeo performances when the animal is four months of age.
“I was responsible for feeding him until the following year and then showing him at the 2017 show,” says Fleming.
In addition to caring for and training the animal, participants keep an intensive record book throughout the year.
“I had to do feed expenses, keep inventories, weigh him at least four times and keep records of all treatments,” continues Fleming. “Then, I did activity logs and daily logs of everything I did with my steer.”
Every month, Fleming wrote a letter to her sponsors in the program and kept record on their correspondence.
Participants also wrote a project story, created picture pages and inserted all of their entries for NWSS into their record books.
“The bigger the record book is, the more points we receive,” explains Fleming. “My record book earned me third place.”
Meat judging
Wyoming youth also dominated the Western National Roundup Meat sJudging Contests.
In the FFA contest, Lander FFA placed third in the placing division and sixth overall.
Lander FFA team members were Kiley McConnell, Flint Pokorny, Macy Jacobson and Silas Goetz.
Natrona County 4-H placed first overall in the 4-H contest and boasted the high, second place, fourth place and seventh place individuals in the contest.
Team members were Trey Campbell, Ben Campbell, Kaylen Lewis and Matthew Willadsen.
Natrona County 4-H co-coach Burt Andreen says that the team’s hard work paid off during NWSS.
“The contest committee put together a really good contest down there. It was a high scoring contest. We were able to just go in there and put into practice some of the things we’ve been learning. It really came out well for us in the end,” says Andreen.
Record scores
In a clean sweep, the Natrona County 4-H Meat Judging Team earned top honors in every contest division and set a new record high score for the national contest.
In addition to shattering the record team score, the team also set a new record score for high individual with Trey Campbell’s performance.
“He had an incredible score. He set a record in terms of score for that contest, so that was pretty exciting for him,” comments Andreen. “He also set a reasons record with two 49s and a perfect 50.”
Teammate Kaylen Lewis also scored a perfect 50 on one of her sets of reasons.
“I’ve never heard of anybody getting a perfect score in reasons, and we had two of them on our team,” Andreen says.
Other representatives
The Wheatland FFA Livestock Judging team consisting of Chase Markel, Ashley Hyche, Tyler Erickson and Ty Paisley, earned eighth high team during their contest.
Albany County 4-H’s Amanda Christensen earned first place in the Impromptu Public Speaking contest, with fellow Wyoming 4-H’er Aletta Ziehl of Natrona County placing second.
The Uinta County 4-H Livestock Quiz Bowl Team earned sixth place. Team members were Ian Siegusmund, Falynn Mackey, James McMurtrey and Delaney Lupher.
Mckenna Carnahan of Sublette County 4-H earned third place in Fashion Revue Constructed, and Crook County 4-H’er Grace Belize Anderson placed fourth in Fashion Revue Ready to Wear.
Numerous other Wyomingites have competed and are competing in the various competitions and livestock shows held during NWSS. State FFA Advisor Stacy Broda also notes that Wyoming FFA alumni are actively working at NWSS in various facets.
“Colby Hales was one of our past state FFA officers, and he was down there judging a cattle show,” she comments. “Our members are really involved at NWSS.”
Emilee Gibb is editor of Wyoming Livestock Roundup and can be reached at emilee@wylr.net.
