ASHLAND — The Ashland FFA Middle School Milk Quality and Products team finished their contest season this month by winning a state championship.
The Milk Quality and Products CDE consists of milk defect identification, cheese and cheese characteristic identification, dairy and non-dairy identification, completing a California Mastitis Test, a dairy industry math practicum, and a multiple choice knowledge test.
Throughout the past two months, the team has competed at the Mount Gilead, Marysville, Miami Trace, and Ashland Invitationals.
At the Mount Gilead Invitational, the team placed 3rd. At the Marysville Invitational, the team placed 4th. At the Miami Trace Invitational, the team placed 2nd. At the Ashland Invitational, the team placed 8th.
In three contests, except for Miami Trace (where it was just a middle school field), the teams competed against both middle and high school teams.
The season culminated with the State Contest at the Ohio Expo Center where the team placed 1st.
Individually: Hannah McNaull was 1st, Gwenyth Miller finished 2nd, Sydney Spellman took 4th, Brandon Keiser earned 5th, Paelyn Wilson placed 9th, and Kaley Stoffer claimed 10th.Â
Additional middle school team members who excelled through the season were: Thomas O’Toole and Jaxton Geer.
Congratulations to the High School Milk Quality and Products duo of Emma Martin and Noah Sobish.
The Middle School team’s top individual placer, Hannah McNaull, will be recognized on May 3 at the 4th General Session of the Ohio FFA Convention. The session starts at 9:30 a.m. and will be livestreamed.Â
The team wishes to thank its coach Greg McNaull and Mr. Fox and Mrs. Harding for taking the team to invitationals.