On October 11th, 2023 the Potosi FFA soils team arrived at the State Soils Contest in Monroe, where they punched their ticket to the national competition in Oklahoma next spring.
At the state competition in Monroe on October 11th, they tied for 1st place and then lost the tiebreaker to put them 2nd in the state. At the state competition, three out of the four team members placed in the top 10: 2nd place was Sydney Recker, 3rd place was Miranda Kieler, and 9th place was Aidan Uppena.
The soils team has spent countless hours preparing for this year's season, and right now we are watching all of their hard work pay off. Leading up to the state competition, the senior soils team of Sydney Recker, Havanna Jantzen, Miranda Kieler, and Aidan Uppena, placed 1st at the Potosi FFA Contest in Potosi, Wisconsin on August 8th, 2023, and 1st at the Green County Soils Evaluation Contest in Monroe, Wisconsin on September 27th, 2023. Along with the competitions they participated in leading up to state, the soils team did one group practice over the summer, as well as individual studying. When studying, they use practice pits in person and virtually, as well as studying the structure and texture of various soils, among other things.
Now that the state competition is over, the soils team is looking to nationals, which will take place in Oklahoma in May 2024. They will take a break from studying for now to focus on their schooling, but they will resume practicing for the national competition in the 2nd semester to prepare. Leading up to nationals in May, the soils team will go back to the basics by using practice pits to study every day for about three or four weeks.
In the past five years, the Potosi soils team has qualified for the national competition three times. In the most recent trip in 2022, the Potosi FFA senior soils team qualified for the national competition. Their team placed 23rd out of 103 teams overall, and they had one individual, Aspen Walsh, place 14th overall out of 389 individuals.