The Montgomery County and Wellsville-Middletown FFA chapters will send a combined six teams to state competition at the Missouri FFA state convention, which is scheduled for April 17-19 at the Hearnes Center in Columbia.

MCHS qualified five teams and W-M will send one to the state convention. MCHS qualified for dairy foods, ag sales, agronomy, meat evaluation and floriculture, while W-M will send its livestock judging team.

State berths were based on results from the Missouri Northeast District LDE (Leadership Development Events) and CDE (Career Development Events) competitions.

The dairy foods team of seniors Shea Stille, Aleida Eldringhoff and Raylene Poston and junior Dever Cope placed second with a score of 594.5 at the district competition on April 5 in Macon. Memphis won the competition with a 639.5. Bowling Green, Paris, Monroe City, Mexico, Silex, Centralia, Ashland, South Shelby and Newtown-Harris also qualified for state.

Stille finished second in individual competition with a 216.5 and Eldringhoff came in third with a 215. Beau Triplett of Memphis won the competition with a 229.

The ag sales team of Poston and juniors Avery Ridgley and Beckham Cothren came in third with a score of 1008.073. Troy and Bowling Green finished in the top two and Community R-VI, Centralia and Monroe City rounded out the top six.

Individually, Ridgley finished seventh with a 345.052, Poston was ninth with a 339.803 and Cothren came in 17th with a 323.218.

The agronomy team of Ridgey, senior Jace Ellis and juniors Landon Pottebaum and Tatum Wessel placed sixth with a score of 1064. MCHS will join North Shelby, Brunswick, Bowling Green, Elsberry, Mexico, North Callaway, South Shelby, Milan, Bevier, Clark County and Sturgeon at state. Pottebaum was the team’s highest finisher, placing 17th with a 403.

The meat evaluation team of senior Destani Eversmeyer, Ava Rakers, Gracie Cobb and Jake Teson also finished sixth. The squad finished with a score of 1367. Monroe City, Troy, Warrenton, Bowling Green and Meadville made up the top five and Memphis, Schuyler, Mark Twain and North Shelby finished behind MCHS in the top 10. Rakers was the team’s top performer with a 12th-place finish and a score of 505.

The floriculture team of Beth Bextermiller, El Reagan, Jaylynn Zerr and Kara Heymeyer finished 10th with a 1319 to advance to state. Palmyra, Ashland, Elsberry, Bucklin, Silex, Bowling Green, Monroe City, Troy and Meadville finished in the top nine and Milan was 11th to qualify for state. Bextermiller finished in a tie for 19th with Meadville’s Ethan Burnett with a 469 to lead MCHS.

MCHS also has an individual who advanced to advancing public speaking competition and that is Cothren, who finished second behind Grant Oaks of Newtown-Harris in districts.

W-M qualified its livestock judging team of Helanea McKenzie, Jenelle Boeckelman, Caden Gilbert and Abbie Freie to state. The squad placed fifth with a 1497 at districts in Columbia on April 3. Troy, Bowling Green, Wright City and South Shelby finished in the top four. McKenzie was ninth with a 520 and Boeckelman placed 14th with 504 to lead the team.
MCHS and W-M each have a team that qualified as a state alternate.

MCHS’ ag mechanics team of Presley Schluss, Derrick Cobb, Brayden Rose and Garrett Weekley finished eighth with a 539 to become an alternate. W-M’s dairy foods team of Cooper Henderson, Evan Bryson, Gage Nichols and Gavyn Moritz came in 12th with a 551 to advance as state alternates.