College Bowl team wins first place
Thirteen LLCC Agriculture Club members competed at the Illinois Postsecondary Agriculture Student Organization (PAS) spring conference held on campus Feb. 10. Students from 13 community colleges and universities participated in contests designed to test their knowledge and readiness for their future careers.

L to R: Isaac Cruz, Adrian Austin, Andrew Daniels, Matt Talkemeyer, Ethan Keiser, Lauren Bickel

The college bowl team of Matt Talkemeyer, Lauren Bickel, Isaac Cruz, Ethan Keiser, Adrian Austin and Andrew Daniels  won first place out of 10 schools competing. The team stumbled in their first match, losing to Western Illinois University. They then ran the table from the losers bracket, winning six matches in a row.

LLCC’s equine specialist team of Brianna Parada and Mary Kate Curtin took third place overall. The soils specialist team of Ethan Keiser, Darian Norville  and Kendall Crawford placed third in their event, with Keiser placing third overall as an individual. Other soils competitors were Baylee Flowers, Amber Meece and Jenny Burnet.

The teams will now travel to the National PAS Conference in St. Charles, Missouri, in March where they will compete against teams from 18 states. In addition to the teams participating at the conference, Mary Kate Curtin was elected as Illinois PAS vice president for 2017-2018.