Posted: October 31, 2018

The Penn State Soil Judging Team placed 4th at the Regional Collegiate Soil Judging Contest in Rhode Island. The contest was held the week of October 12th in the area around Kingston.

L-R: Bethany Thatcher, Kylie Hint, Eric Bevaqua, Anne McGraw, Michael Grega, Alyssa Sieja, Hannah Albright, Nicole Rella, Melissa Miller, Brin Aston

L-R: Bethany Thatcher, Kylie Hint, Eric Bevaqua, Anne McGraw, Michael Grega, Alyssa Sieja, Hannah Albright, Nicole Rella, Melissa Miller, Brin Aston

Between October 9th and 13th nine students from Penn State competed at the 2017 Northeast Collegiate Soil Judging Contest hosted by the University of Rhode Island near Kingston, RI.

The contest is an annual event, which allows students to practice describing and interpreting soils and landscapes against different schools from around the country. The top schools from each region compete at a Fall regional competition in order to qualify for the National event held the following Spring. This year, students practiced describing soils formed in a variety of residual and glacial parent materials. The competing schools were Delaware Valley College, Bloomsburg University, University of Maryland, University of Rhode Island, and Penn State. University of Rhode Island took first, 3566 pts), Univ. of Maryland second (3557 pts), Delaware Valley College third (3352 pts), Penn State fourth (3292 pts), Bloomsburg fifth (3166 pts), and Ohio State sixth (3161 pts). Penn State State was coached by Dr. Drohan rand graduate student Melissa Miller.

Penn State's team consisted of: Bethany Thatcher (Env. Res. Mgmt.), Kylie Hint (Env. Res. Mgmt.), Eric Bevaqua (Env. Res. Mgmt.), Anne McGraw (Env. Res. Mgmt.), Michael Grega, (Env. Res. Mgmt.), Alyssa Sieja (Env. Res. Mgmt.), Hannah Albright (Env. Res. Mgmt.), Nicole Rella (Ag. Biol. Eng.), and Brin Aston (Env. Res. Mgmt.).

Fifty students competed in the contest's individual component. Penn State's Bethany Thatcher finished 38th, Kylie Hint 25th, Eric Bevaqua 26th, Anne McGraw 37th, Michael Grega, 9th, Alyssa Sieja 17th, Hannah Albright 35th, Nicole Rella 5th, and Brin Aston 34th. Coach Patrick Drohan said "The Rhode Island soils are very different from what we see around University Park and the students really adapted well over the week''s practice. As usual, the contest was very close."

While the team won't attend Nationals in Tennessee, Dr. Drohan urged anyone interested in supporting the team to contribute to the squad's travel fund here: http://soiljudging.psu.edu/. The team will be participating in a Spring field activity with Bloomsburg University and Westchester University.

Penn State teams have participated in national and regional soil-judging competitions since the 1960, Drohan noted. The contest is part of the Soil Science Society of America's commitment to soils education and provides participating students with an opportunity to see new soils and to test their skills against peers from across the region.

For more information about the team, and the 60 year+ history of Soil Judging at Penn State, see: http://soiljudging.psu.edu/ and https://www.facebook.com/psusoiljudging