After competing in five different state contests this past week, at four different locations, the Blanco FFA will be making its 8th trip to a national contest, as the Blanco FFA Range Team will be competing at next week’s National Range Judging Competition in Oklahoma City. Seniors Alisa Guler, Sarah Isenberg, Ross McCormick, Jared Newby, Samantha Ruiz, and Junior Katie Baker, will be representing Blanco High School and the State of Texas following their 4th place finish at state. Individually, Alisa would be recognized by Tarleton State University as the 4th high individual in the state, while Sarah would place 13th. The range team will continue their award winning year, after having won 1st place at Guadalupe, Blanco, Hill District, and Area, in addition to finishing 9th at the Tarleton Invitational and 11th at the state qualifiers CDE’s in Hamilton.

In addition to Blanco’s range team, four other teams represented the local chapter on the state level as well, beginning with the Blanco FFA Entomology Team of Brooks Wyatt, Taylor McCormick, and Keith Baize, which placed 14th at the State Entomology Career Development Event at Texas Tech University on April 19th. On the area level, Blanco would finish 5th overall, while also placing 2nd at district. In addition to these competitions, Blanco would also finish 4th overall at the Tarleton State University Invitational CDE’s, which is the largest judging competition in the state. Individually, Taylor would rank 9th at TSU, while Keith would place 19th, and Brooks 21st.

The following week would see the Range Plant Identification Team of Keaton Dodd, Taylor McCormick, and Kaleigh Anderson tie for 2nd at their respective state competition which was held in Hamilton, TX. Individually, Keaton would place 3rd overall, while Taylor and Kaleigh would also finish in the top ten individuals as well. In addition to their strong showing at the state contest, the Plant I.D. team would also close out the year having won first place in district, area, and the Blanco and Guadalupe Invitational CDE’s.

After competing in the State Qualifiers Contests in Hamilton, the Blanco Land Team would travel to Stephenville along with the range team to compete in the State Land CDE sponsored by Tarleton State University. In the land judging competition, Blanco would finish 42nd in the state. This closes out a year in which Blanco would place 1st at the Guadalupe Invitational, 2nd at the Blanco Invitational, Hill District CDE, and Area VII CDE, and 2nd at the State Qualifiers Contest in Hamilton. Highlighting the land team’s accomplishments this year would be a 1st place finish at the Tarleton Invitational, in which the team would win a $500 scholarship. Team members include: Austin Deshane, Victoria Jones, Shelby Moore, and Austin Thompson.

Finally, the Blanco FFA Livestock Team of Kaleigh Anderson, Keaton Dodd, Quaid Haack, and Carrie Lockwood, would close out the week competing at the State Livestock Career Development Event hosted by Texas A&M. Overall, the livestock team would place in the top 40% of the state, while closing out a successful year. During the semester, Blanco would finish 1st in district, 3rd in area, 3rd at the Heart of Texas Invitational, 3rd at Texas State University, 2nd at the Floresville Invitational, and 1st at Tarleton. As a result of winning the Tarleton competition, the livestock team was also awarded a $500 scholarship.

With the 2007-2008 school year coming to a close, the Blanco FFA will once again be recognized as the Hill District FFA Sweepstakes Winner for career development events. This marks the 6th time in the past 7 years that Blanco has won this honor. In addition, Blanco placed 3rd overall in sweepstakes at the Tarleton State Invitational and 2nd overall at the Texas State Invitational. Blanco was the only school in the state to place in the top 3 at each of these events. Advisors for the Blanco FFA are Felice and Jason Marek.