AMES, Iowa - The Iowa State University Crops Team won second place in the four-year school division at the 2014 North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) Crops Contest held April 10-12 at Northwest Missouri State University.
Individual scores helped the team reach the top 10. Kathryn Hoemann, sophomore from Clive, received second place; Katharina Wigg, a sophomore from Schleswig, placed third; Matthew Duesterhaus, a sophomore from Mendon, Illinois took the eighth
spot; and Nicholas Paulsmeyer, a sophomore from Petersburg, Illinois, rounded out the top 10 at 10th place. The Iowa State students are all agronomy majors.
Four other students contributed to the Iowa State’s second place award. David Samson, a junior from Sully; Mason Lewis, a junior from Monroe; Eric Coddington, a freshman from Montello, Wisconsin; Casey Engen, a freshman from Lamberton, Minnesota;
and Lucas Roberts, a freshman from Trivoli, Illinois.
The team also won the Ag Knowledge Bowl for the fourth consecutive year, which is held in conjunction with the NACTA Crops Contest. That team, included Duesterhaus, Hoemann, Paulsmeyer, Wigg and Lewis.
NACTA is a professional society founded in 1955 to “focus on the scholarship of teaching and learning agriculture and related disciplines.” Members of NACTA include public and private post-secondary schools, with divisions for two- and four-year institutions.
Erik Christian, an Iowa State agronomy lecturer, coaches the Iowa State Crops Team. Christian is assisted by agronomy seniors Elliot Reicks, from Lawler; and Michael Paulsmeyer from Petersburg, Illinois.