The Fresno State soil judging team placed 15th overall for its highest-ever team finish in the National Collegiate Soils Contest hosted on March 22 and 23 by the University of Tennessee at Martin.

Competitors from 22 of the nation’s most respected collegiate agriculture programs were tested in their ability to identify, evaluate, classify and describe soil profiles in individual and team competitions.

Senior Mark Castanon finished fifth overall among the 88 individual competitors and qualified for the International Soil Judging Contest August 7 to 11 in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. The international competition is held every four years in conjunction with the World Congress of Soil Science meetings.
The Fresno native was the top finisher from a university in the Western United States with his combined score of 680 points, only 24 points behind winner Kelli Roush of Iowa State who scored 704 points.

“Our team’s performance was a representation of all the hard work and dedication that we have put into making the soil judging team a reality at Fresno State,” said Castanon. “The team is thankful for all the support that we’ve received from our coaches, advisors and department staff to prepare us for these competitions with knowledge that will also be advantageous in our career paths.”

Fresno State’s seven-person team also consisted of plant science seniors Aldo Garcia (Shafter), Nancy Valdez (Wasco), Ricardo Rodriguez-Baeza (Mendota), junior Georgina Reyes Solorio (Livingston) and freshmen Sandra Gaylord (Ivanhoe) and Vanessa Ramos (Porterville).

To prepare for the event, the team members voluntarily met on Friday evenings and weekends to learn soil judging techniques and methodologies. The competition also exposed the plant science major students to Southeastern soil condition types derived from wind-blown silt, coastal-plain sediment and fragipan layers.

Fresno State qualified for the event based on its second-place overall finish at the Region 6 Soil Judging Competition hosted March 3 near Chico by Butte College.

The third-year team is coached by Michael Sowers and Dr. Phil Smith. Plant science faculty Dr. Dave Goorahoo and professor emeritus Dr. Bruce Roberts serve as team advisors.

Under their guidance past years, the team finished 20th nationally in 2017 and 18th in 2016.

Plant science faculty, staff and students also support soil judging and evaluation by hosting high school FFA state contests each spring on its campus farm – an event that Reyes Solorio placed first in 2015 when she was a high school senior.

Complete results are available at http://bit.ly/FS18-natl-soil-judging-results, and more event information is available at http://bit.ly/FS18-JC-natl-soil-contest-info