May 5, 2002
AMES, Iowa - An Iowa State University senior took top individual honors and her team placed second in the American Society of Agronomy national soil judging contest April 20-26.
Meghan Buckley, Greenwich, N.Y., is majoring in agronomy. She won the individual portion of the contest, besting 82 other students.
Twenty-one university teams participated in the contest that was held in southeastern Minnesota and hosted by the University of Minnesota.
.
Besides Buckley, the six-member team from Iowa State included Erik Christian, Story City; Terri Howard, Orient; Jay Jung, Charles City; Brett Peelen, Sheldon; and Mark Scuffham, Algona. The team was coached by Jon Sandor, professor of agronomy, and Skye Wills, a graduate student in agronomy.
During the contest, students wrote detailed descriptions of the soil layers, classified the soils, determined the geological characteristics of the site, made topographic and hydrologic measurements and interpreted soil properties for agricultural and engineering land use.