Two misidentified plants equalled 60 missed points for the Cleburne range team at the state FFA competition in Stephenville Thursday.
That cost Donica Clepper, Shelby Galvin, Craig Hughes and Deanna Moser a possible first place and a trip to nationals, but the team still managed an impressive seventh place overall with 1,032 points.
Only 43 points separated first place Hamilton, with 1,075 points, and Cleburne.
Brownwood was second with 1,074 points followed by Jacksboro with 1,057, Harper with 1,054, Anson with 1,042 and Haskell with 1,038.
Clepper was 11th individually with 361 points, and Hughes 18th with 345. Moser had 326 points and Galvin 294.
The Yellow Jacket quartet was stumped by two grasses that are non-native to North Central Texas, curly mesquite and sand lovegrass.
All were unable to identify the two plants.
“Curly mesquite is a small runner grass like buffalo grass but with a little bit different characteristics,” Cleburne vocational ag teacher Barney McClure said. “Sand lovegrass grows west and south of here. Both of those are on the list of plants to identify. Those are plants that don’t grow around here. We hadn’t seen them. That’s 20 points per kid and 60 points for the top three kids. But we identified a lot of plants, too. I’m proud of all our kids. They competed hard and did great.”
It was a photo finish at the top in range.
“It’s about a 1,200-point contest, and only a few points separated the top teams,” McClure said. “There were eight or 10 teams that were really close. Each plant in the plant line was 10 points. It was a tough contest. My hat’s off to all those kids and teams.”
The playing field has leveled in recent years in the state contests.
“Fifteen years ago, you might have seen a 150-point difference in the top five teams,” McClure said. “Now, it’s really tight. We live in a competitive world. I was talking to the general superintendent of the contest, and he asked me if I thought the competitition was getting tougher. I told him, ‘I know it is.’ ”
Cleburne placed 21st in the state land contest. Tyson Taves was 30th individually with 216 points. Cassi Hall had 185 points, Kaleigh Mangrum 172 and Alex Cooper 147 for a total 573, only 48 points removed from the Top 10.
“The land team did well,” McClure said. “That was their second highest score of the year.”
The dairy foods team was 32nd. Tori Aker was 54th individually with 175 points. Katlyn Martin had 167 points, Hayley House 150 and Calliea McNulty 146.
The dairy cattle team was 33rd. James Richmond was 68th individually with 318 points. Kayler Campbell had 302 points, Kristine Camp 293 and Kassaun Ledbetter 283.
The Grandview dairy cattle team was 14th with 1,222 points, only four points out of the Top 10. Shea McKinnerney was 24th individually with 320 points. Mallori Phelps had 310 points, Lauren Thompson 307 and Casey McKinnerney 279.
The Godley dairy cattle team was 35th. Eddie Wilson and Hoston Hanna had 310 points each, Dustin Kirkpatrick 309 and Lacy Massey 301.
The Alvarado dairy foods team was 40th. Audriana Jones had 163 points, Lauren Spoon 159, Taylor Chenoweth 158 and Kayla Abel 150.
Cleburne ISD
Range team comes in seventh
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