Congratulations to Black Hawk College East Campus students and coaches for winning the 2022 North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) Judging Conference Sweepstakes Award!
This marks the 13th time Black Hawk College has garnered the top prize at the national judging conference. BHC students brought home the Sweepstakes Award in 1981-85, 1989, 2009, 2014 and 2016-19.
The 39-member BHC team won by having the highest combined team score for two-year schools. The second-place team was Northeast Community College from Norfolk, NE. Illinois State University won for the four-year-schools.
The four-day conference was held for the first time since 2019. About 200 students from 17 two-year schools competed.
Black Hawk College entered teams in nine of the 13 contests. To be eligible for the Sweepstakes Award this year, a college had to enter at least seven contests.
Team awards:
- 1st Place – Ag Communications, Ag Computers, Dairy Judging, Equine Management, Livestock Judging, Livestock Management and Soils Judging
- 2nd Place – Ag Business
- 4th Place – Knowledge Bowl
BHC East Campus students who competed in the 2022 NACTA Judging Conference:
- Grace Angotti – Freedom, WI
- Eden Basford – Pennville, IN
- Ross Brumbaugh – Laotto, IN
- Robby Burchett – Jonesville, VA
- Tori Crisp – Union Grove, WI
- Katie Elmhirst – Indian River, Ontario
- Dawson Firlus – Mauston, WI
- Megan Fowler – Aledo, IL
- Coby Frey – Upper Sandusky, OH
- Trenton Hammerand – Epworth, IA
- Denton Homan – Botkins, OH
- Chase Howell – Laura, IL
- Spencer Jack – Stronghurst, IL
- Brooke Kiefer – West Bend, WI
- Conner Knudson – Morristown, IN
- Hunter Knudson – Morristown, IN
- Cal Larson – Altona, IL
- McKenzie Layton – Pocasset, OK
- Hannah Lemay – Tuscola, IL
- Alex Linder – Norwalk, OH
- Maggie McStay – Sheridan, WY
- Logan Mehling – Powell, WY
- Blake Moeller – West Point, IA
- Karson Patton – Frankfurt, IN
- Gabrielle Ralston – Resaca, GA
- Jazmine Ralston – Resaca, GA
- Olivia Richardson – Connersville, IN
- Logan Rozenboom – Bussey, IA
- Colton Russell – Berwick, IL
- Dillon Sheiss – Larwill, IN
- Josie Spratt – Purcell, OK
- Savannah Stamann – Brimfield, IL
- Josh Starner – Rushville, OH
- Brianna Stockwell – Dowagiac, MI
- Chevy Vaske – Glencoe, KY
- Kaili Weiner – Ontonagon, MI
- Cody Wick – Gratiot, WI
- Carli Wright – Bradford, IL
- Gunnar Wuebben – Albany, IL
View list of BHC 2022 NACTA awards.
View photos from NACTA on Facebook.
Thanks and congratulations to the Black Hawk College coaches:
- Dr. Blake Bloomberg – Dairy Judging and Livestock Judging
- Drew Cotton – Ag Business
- Selena Finn – Equine Management and Ag Computers
- Tim Hubbard – Livestock Judging, Livestock Management and Knowledge Bowl
- Andrew Larson – Soils Judging
- Dr. Colleen Lewis – Ag Communications
Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture – a two-year college that is a member of the University of Nebraska system – hosted the conference in North Platte, NE.