Davis - Blogs | Blog | Regional report

26 Oct

By James Thompson
Associate Professor of Soils and Land Use

It has been a wet fall on the Cumberland Plateau of central Tennessee, and there was no break in the rain last week when teams representing 12 different schools gathered in Crossville, TN, for the 2009 Southeast Regional Collegiate Soils Contest. Despite over an inch of rainfall during the week, which turned soil pits into small ponds, the students of the WVU Soils Team took every opportunity to study the local conditions and practice their soil judging skills as they examined soil profiles of the different soils found in the region.
The contest was hosted by the University of Tennessee—Knoxville. Other schools that participated were Auburn University, Clemson University, the University of Florida, the University of Georgia, the University of Kentucky, North Carolina State University, the University of Tennessee—Martin, Tennessee Tech, Virginia Tech, and Western Kentucky University.

The Team spent three days dodging raindrops while practicing for the contest, examining representative soils and landscapes of the area. The eight students that traveled with the Team are Ben Bennett, Katey Buckland, Josh Hall, T.J. Montgomery, Chris Orndorff, Katie Payne, Samantha Spencer, and Sarah Taylor. Other students on the Team are Victoria Bishop, Samantha Galloway, Kate Hendershot, Brittany Parks, Rebecca Rush, and Marc Wist.

While the WVU Soils Team has gone to the National Collegiate Soils Contest each of the last four years, finishing in the top five each year, the Team has never finished higher than third in the Southeast Regional. In fact, the Team has not won the Southeast Regional since 1981. In spite of the soggy conditions, the Team performed well, impressing their coach and themselves. When the results were announced, four WVU students placed in the top ten, with Katey Buckland (senior, Environmental Protection) finishing seventh, Sarah Taylor (senior, Agronomy) fourth, Chris Orndorff (senior, Agronomy) third, and Josh Hall (senior, Agronomy) second. This strong showing in the individual contest led WVU to a first place finish in the team competition. The Team will now begin to prepare for the National Collegiate Soils Contest, which will be held March 21-26, 2010, in Lubbock, TX. The other schools who finished in the top six and will represent the Southeast Region in the National Contest are Virginia Tech (second), Auburn (third), Clemson (fourth), Georgia (fifth), and Tennessee—Martin (sixth).

As always, I am extremely proud of the accomplishments of all of these students, and I hope that you will join me in congratulating them if you have them in any of your courses or if you interact with them in other ways. These students continue to build upon the past success of the WVU Soils Team, and students and faculty from other schools are noticing our students’ achievements. I believe this speaks to the quality of the training that these students receive from the Division of Plant & Soil Sciences. It also reflects the overall strength of the academic programs across the Davis College, because the Soils Team includes students from Animal & Nutritional Sciences, Plant & Soil Sciences, and Resource Management. Thank you for your support of these students, particularly when they are away from campus for extended periods at critical times during the semester.