GREENVILLE — Every year prior to the start of the Parade of Champions on Thursday of the Great Darke County Fair, an awards ceremony is held in front of the Grandstand.
Three of those awards go to the top two young people in shop, crop and horticulture exhibits in the Youth Building. Announcing the awards this year was Karri Sherman, ag teacher at Greenville High School.
In the area of horticulture, the overall winner trophy was presented to Kinsie Blocher of Missisinawa Valley/Miami Valley Career Technology Center (MVCTC) for her hot banana peppers, while the reserve trophy went to Nathan Thobe of Franklin Monroe MVCTC with his cucumbers.
Overall crop trophy winner was Emily Scholl of Mississinawa Valley (MV) /MVCTC with her stalk of corn, and the reserve trophy recipient was Brad Didier of Versailles FFA for his sweet corn.
Kyle Fourman of Franklin Monroe/MVCTC was presented the overall trophy in the area of shop with his restored Farmall tractor, and the reserve trophy was awarded to Cody Dirksen of MV/MVCTC for his restored John Deere plow.
Additional awards were presented to other individuals in various judging competitions.
On the first Saturday of the fair, ag teachers host a dairy cattle judging contest where 4-Hers and FFA member alike can put together a team or participate individually to judge dairy cattle. Members judge five classes of dairy cattle and in each class, members are asked five questions about characteristics of the animals and then place them first through fourth. They then turn their answers in, scored and the top five teams and individuals with the highest scores are placed in either the junior or senior division.
All teams received a rosette and the first-place team received a trophy, while all top individuals received a rosette with the top three receiving a trophy.
In the junior division, there were only two teams. First place team with a score of 833 points, went to Grade-A-Kids No. 1, consisting of Mariah Troutwine, Maggie Weiss and Katie Weiss, and the second award went to Grade-A-Kids No. 2 with a score of 806 points, consisting of Tyler Kress, Tyler Dehan and Logan Dehan.
Junior division individuals placed as follows: Maggie Weiss, first place with 341 points; Tyler Kress, second, with 290 points; Mariah Troutwine, third,287 points; Logan Dehan, fourth, with 267 points; and Tyler Dehan, fifth place with 249 points.
In the senior division, first place went to Versailles FFA Alumni with a score of 971 points and comprised of Deanna Langenkamp, Alex Weiss and Sarah Rhoades; second to Grade-A-Kids No. 2 with 935 points with a team made up of Carrie, Sam and Hannah Rhoades; third to Versailles FFA, which earned 910 points, with members Clair and Shelbie Schmitmeyer, Caden Buscher and Jon Gehret; and fourth place with a score of 820 points to Darke County Holsteins with members including Isaac and Emily Ruhenkamp and Renea and Sam Schmitmeyer.
Individual winners in the senior division were: Sarah Rhoades with 389 points; second, Hannah Rhoades, 327 points; third, Shelbie Schmitmeyer, 318 points; fourth, Carrie Rhoades with 314 points; and a tie for fifth place, with 301 points, Jon Gehret and Deanna Langenkamp.
On Wednesday of fair week, ag teachers hosted a general livestock judging contest where members judge two classes of swine, two classes of beef cattle, one class of goats and one class of sheep. These members, which included 4-H and FFA members, were asked five questions about each class based on characteristics and placed first through fourth. The top five teams received a rosette with the first-place team receiving a trophy; and the top five individuals received a rosette with the top three receiving a trophy.
Teams placed as follows: First with 1,855 points to Greenville FFA with members Jared and Elisha Meeks, Noah Vanhorn and Olivia McDade; second with 1,836 points to Swine Koolers with members Sidney McAllister, Madelyn Fearon, Luke Brinksneader and Brittany Brewer; third place with 1,739 points to the Sheep Barn with members Collin and Emma Peters and Haleigh and Tacycie Powell; fourth with 1,732 points to Versailles FFA No. 1 and members Deanna Hesson, Ben Albers and Ian and Isaac Gehret; and fifth with 1,719 points to Tri-Village FFA with members Tyler Martin, Jared Godown, Brenden Durst and Jenna Godown.
The top individual winner resulted in a tie between Carver Gostomsky and Isaac Gehret with 520 points. Second in individual went to Emma Peters with 519 points; third to Shannon Parent with 510 points; fourth to Madison Stachler with 496 points; and fifth to Luke Brinksneader with 495 points.
Sherman also announced that the other ag teachers around the county are: Dena Wuebker of Versailles; Carmen Hartzell at Mississinawa Valley who will have Katie Hart as a student teacher this spring; Kevin Bergman at Franklin Monroe; Emily Williams and new to the county year year Zane Fessler at Ansonia; Justin Sloan, new at Tri-Village; and Brian Pohlman, new at Arcanum.
