MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State University pushed its winning streak to four in a row with a dominating showing at the national Meat Animal Evaluation contest in Laramie, Wyoming.
Kyla Mennen (Logansport, Indiana) led a 1-5 sweep by K-State in the overall standings, followed by Cole Murphy (Houstonia, Missouri), Sadie Marchiano (Fort Scott, Kansas), Bailey Lavender (Branford, Florida) and Sam Stickley (St. Paris, Ohio).
Logan Buhrman placed eighth overall, giving K-State six of the top 10 finishers in the individual standings.
As a team, K-State was the top scoring team in five divisions: beef, breeding, market, meats and swine. The team was second in the sheep division, and third in communications.
K-State’s margin of victory was more than 300 points over Oklahoma State University. It’s the fourth straight win at the national contest for the team, and seventh in the last eight events held; K-State had a three-year winning streak between 2016-2018.
“The meat animal evaluation contest is the most comprehensive test of students’ knowledge of the factors that impact production of meat from livestock,” said Mike Day, head of K-State’s Department of Animal Sciences. “Many of the students that compete in this contest have already demonstrated excellence in animal and/or meat evaluation, and this annual opportunity to pull their knowledge, education and training together makes this a true capstone experience.”
Day added that students’ ability to evaluate a product’s value as impacted by genetics and management “is crucial to economic efficiency and sustainability of meat production.”
The team is coached by K-State faculty members Travis O’Quinn, Chris Mullinix and Payton Dahmer. There were 26 students on this year’s team.
In addition to victory in the overall standings, Mennen led the team with a win in the swine division and top six finishes individually in beef, meats, market, sheep and breeding. Murphy (second overall) placed first in beef and market, and had top five finishes in breeding, sheep and swine.
More information about the team is available online. Complete team and individual results also are available online.
