FFA team excels

• FFA

submitted photo Members of the Mountain Lake FFA team that earned second in the nation in the environmental and natural resources Career Development Event (CDE) include Britton Pankratz (from left), Dylan Oeltjenbruns, Will Dunker and Alex Schultz.

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WORTHINGTON — The Mountain Lake High School FFA’s environmental and natural resources team was still celebrating on Monday following their second-place finish at the National FFA Convention late last week in Indianapolis, Ind.

The Mountain Lake foursome took runner-up honors in the contest, which included 38 other teams from across the country. Individually, Mountain Lake junior Will Dunker earned fourth of 154 contestants. He was followed by Britton Pankratz in 13th place, Dylan Oeltjenbruns in 18th and Alex Schultz in 33rd.

The team earned the trip to the National FFA Convention after earning first place in the state Fish and Wildlife CDE contest last April. The contest name at nationals better reflects the overall CDE, which has students completing environmental analysis, water testing, GPS mapping, soil profiling and wildlife identification.

Three of the four Mountain Lake team members who shared in the state FFA title graduated last spring and decided not to compete in the national event because of the time commitment involved. That left Mountain Lake FFA Advisor Tom Appel to find replacements.

“The two sophomores (Schultz and Pankratz) had already been on the state forestry team, so I went with two students who had experience, and then it was to find one more good student that wanted to work hard and prepare,” Appel said. Oeltjenbruns, a junior, ultimately garnered the last open seat on the team.

Dunker, who placed second high individual in the Minnesota FFA contest, said he thought the team would do well.

“We had studied a lot,” Dunker said, adding that he and his teammates worked with Appel at least once a week for two to three hours per session since June.

This was the first time Mountain Lake FFA had a fish and wildlife CDE team advance to the national contest. Appel said the team had to spend so much time studying because less than 5 percent of the national contest was the same as what was covered in the state event.

“It is pretty much a different contest than our state,” Appel said. At nationals, team members competed for approximately a day and a half.

One of the most challenging portions of the contest was the environmental analysis, in which team members received a packet of information and had one hour to develop recommendations on how they would react or deal with an oil spill. Teams then had to give an eight-minute oral presentation to judges and complete a written report.

Dunker said the environmental analysis and water testing were among the most diffuclgt segments of the contest, while his favorite was completing a soil profile.

It wasn’t all work for team members, however. They left Mountain Lake on Oct. 18 for Indianapolis, touring a dairy farm in Indiana before arriving at the national convention. They also attended a rodeo and spent time at the National FFA Convention’s career show.

The region was well represented at the 83rd annual National FFA Convention last week. Following are results from other CDE and award contests.

Career Development Events:

Agronomy: Jackson County Central FFA, ninth place of 34 teams. Individually, Kyle Edlin placed 10th; Austin Lucht and Alison Tate were gold emblem recipients and Paige Grussing was a silver emblem recipient.

Creed Speaking: Mallory Pagel, Fulda FFA, bronze emblem ranking.

Livestock Evaluation: Jackson County Central FFA, third place of 47 teams. Individually, Zach Post placed fourth; Tanner Post and Evan Koep earned gold emblem rankings and Kate Anderson earned a silver emblem ranking.

Meats Evaluation & Technology: Southwest Star Concept FFA, silver emblem team. Individually, Maddie Collin, Austin Liepold, Lindsey Thurk and Megan Thurk each earned silver emblem rankings.

Nursery/Landscape: Mountain Lake FFA, seventh place of 42 teams. Individually, Karina Fast and Sada Kliewer each earned gold emblem rankings, while Brianna Welp and Clarice Wallert earned silver emblem rankings.

Other awards:

American FFA Degree: Travis DeKruif, Murray County Central; April Johnson, Windom; Tara Onken, Murray County Central; and Chris Opdahl, Murray County Central.

National Chapter Award: Sibley-Ocheyedan (Iowa) FFA, three stars; Okoboji (Iowa) FFA, two stars.

FFA Proficiency: Ike Pohlman, Jackson County Central FFA, special animal production entrepreneurship/placement, gold ranking.

FFA Scholarship recipients: Allison Jaycox, Worthington FFA, $1,000; Kirsten Pagel, Fulda FFA, $1,000.

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