MANHATTAN, Kan. – The Kansas State University Weed Science teams had a successful showing at the second annual National Collegiate Weed Contest held July 21, 2015. The contest was hosted by The Ohio State University at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center’s Western Agricultural Research Station near South Charleston, Ohio.
K-State competed with three graduate teams and one undergraduate team. One of the three graduate teams took first place in the western region of the contest. Members of that team included: Chelsea Ahlquist, Onaga, Kansas; Marshall Hay, Lynnville, Iowa; Eric VanLoenen, Hill City, Kansas; and Randy DeGreeff, Salina, Kansas. Individual awards included: Chelsea Ahlquist, 1st Overall Graduate Score; and Marshall Hay, 2nd Overall Graduate Score.
K-State also had the 2nd Place Undergraduate Team in the western region with members: Garrison Gundy, Halstead, Kansas; Ashley Lorence, Lebanon, Kansas; and Zach Vincent, Long Island, Kansas Garrison also won 2nd Overall Undergraduate Score.
The other two K-State graduate teams that participated in the contest included: Gared Shaffer, Independence, Kansas; Wale Osipitan, Nigeria; Sridevi Betha, India; Junjun Ou, China; Seth Menzer, Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin; and Samida Khadka, Nepal.
Coaches were Anita Dille, Kevin Donnelly, and Dallas Peterson, professors of agronomy.
The contest included four events: weed identification, farmer problem solving, written and team sprayer calibration, and identification of herbicide symptomology.
A total of 60 teams (41 graduate and 19 undergraduate teams) with about 230 students competed across the four regions from 25 different universities.
Award winners were recognized from each of four regional weed science societies. K-State competed with other universities from the Western Society of Weed Science that included University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Wyoming, Washington State University, North Dakota State University, and University of California-Davis.
