The Blinn College livestock judging team was named reserve champion at the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.
Landon Eldridge placed third overall in Houston and joined teammate Sierra Martin in earning All-America honors. Jessica Juvinall was the high individual of the alternate contest, while Chris Barton and HC Neal both finished in the top five.
Blinn has previously been awarded the championship at the Flint Hills Classic in El Dorado, Kan.; the Tulsa State Fair in Oklahoma; the State Fair of Texas in Dallas; the Southwestern Livestock Exposition in Fort Worth; and the Dixie National Livestock Show in Jackson, Miss.
Blinn was named the reserve champion team at the National Barrow Show in Austin, Minn., and National Western Livestock Show in Denver, Colo.
“I couldn’t be more proud of this team,” said livestock judging coach Brice Mund, who coaches the team alongside Joe Rathmann. “Altogether, we competed in 13 contests and were consistently in the hunt for each one.”
Martin earned high individual honors at Flint Hills, the State Fair of Texas, the Tulsa State Fair, and the National Western.
“I felt like this team at Blinn was more like a family and we were all focused on the same goals,” Martin said. “To end my judging career being named an All-American is a long-time goal that is now an accomplishment.”
Lori Edwards earned high individual at Fort Worth and reserve high individual at Tulsa State Fair. Neal earned high individual scores at the Griswold Cattle Company Collegiate Invitational in Stillwater, Okla. Eldridge was reserve high individual at National Barrow Show, and Austin Nauman earned reserve high individual at Dixie National.
“We want to make sure that our administration and faculty across campus understands how much we appreciate their support of our program,” Mund said.
Blinn’s Agricultural Sciences Program is one of the largest in the nation with almost 800 students enrolled – roughly four times the size of any other two-year agricultural program in the state. Blinn offers agriculture classes on all its campuses, with the W.J. “Bill” Rankin Agricultural Complex serving as the program’s hub. In addition to its excellence in the classroom, Blinn offers extracurricular educational activities in the areas of livestock judging, agriculture club, wildlife, agriculture mechanics, horticulture and agriculture sciences.
For more information on Blinn’s Ag Sciences program, visit: www.blinn.edu/agriculture.