Maci Miller

Writer

Marlow Future Farmers of America (FFA) members have been competing in Career Development Events (CDE) and Leadership Development Events (LDE) throughout the spring season.

Marlow FFA typically brings along three teams to the CDE contests, which includes  a livestock judging team, an environmental/ natural resources team and an agronomy team.

These teams competed at the Oklahoma State University OSU Interscholastics on Saturday, April 29, which is the state contest for CDE.

All of these teams have had numerous successes throughout the many contests they have traveled the state of Oklahoma to compete in, leading up to the state contest.

One of these events is Livestock Judging, which is one of the most competitive CDEs that Marlow competes in, and despite this being the first year of Marlow’s current agriculture teacher to have a full judging team, sophomores Emma Throckmorton and Briley Stoll and freshmen Avery Throckmorton and Kinley Castle have been consistently moving towards the top of the leaderboard.

The judging team has had many top 20 finishes, including 12th place at NEO A&M Aggie Day Interscholastics, 11th place at Connors State College and fourth place at The Buckle Livestock Judging Contest.

All of these girls have been judging since they were young, and even a few of them together.

The Throckmorton sisters have been judging together since their childhood, attending camps, going to contests, and growing up around the livestock industry.

Emma and Avery Throckmorton, along with their teammates, ended up placing 38th in the state out of 97 teams.

With the oldest on this team being sophomores Stoll and Emma Throckmorton, the future is bright for this young team.

The environmental/ natural resources team was also a new team to Marlow FFA this year, started up by junior Hunter Miller.

Miller’s team was made up of junior Wade Townley and freshmen Jack Glover and Gabe Wright.

They had a great debut year as well, earning 11th place at the Eastern Oklahoma State College Interscholastics, eighth at NEO A&M and tenth at Connors State College.

Only Miller and Townley were able to compete at the state contest, not allowing them to gain as many team points and placing17th.

This contest is one that Marlow plans to continue to compete at in the coming years.

Another fairly new team is the agronomy team.

The Marlow FFA agronomy team is made up of seniors Katy Diedrich and Ruby Crow and sophomores Ethan Vanston and Maci Miller.

The agronomy contest is very competitive, with many kids across the state who are very knowledgeable about plants.

This is only Marlow’s second season of competing in agronomy, coming off with a sixth place finish at the state contest last year.

Marlow’s team has had much success in contests, placing second at Redlands Community College Interscholastics, Murray State Interscholastics and the Central Area Interscholastics, third place at Eastern Oklahoma State College and fourth at Connors State College.

Vanston is a first year member of the agronomy team, while Diedrich and Miller were both a part of the state team last year.

“We have had practices at least one day most weeks and practice everyday in class,” said Vanston.

This practice paid off with the agronomy team placing fourth in the state with two top ten individuals.

Diedrich placed ninth and Miller placed eighth.

The agronomy team will lose two seniors next year, but with the experience of the others, the team will continue the hard work and succeed in the upcoming future.