Meat Judging Team Wins and Shows at Houston Livestock Show

Written by Moriah Beyers

Texas Tech’s meat judging team walked away with first and third place honors March 6 at the Houston Livestock Show’s Intercollegiate Meat Judging Contest. This is the seventh consecutive year the Red Raiders have won the competition in Houston.

The Red Raider’s Black team finished first and posted a total score of 4,089 – only two points ahead of their nearest competitor, Oklahoma State University. Texas Tech’s Red team scored 4080 points and finished third. The teams won the beef grading, beef judging, lamb judging, overall beef and specification divisions.

“I’m very proud of the commitment of these students this spring,” said Mark Miller, Horn Professor and San Antonio Livestock Show Distinguished Chair in Meat Science. “We are very blessed to have such a deep team this year with seven of the top 11 scores in the contest being Tech students.”

Individually, Natalee Smith, a junior from Albemarle, N.C., finished second. She was followed by Cody Sultenfuss, a sophomore from Little-River Academy, who was fourth. Zach Smith, a sophomore from Sweetwater; Drew Cashman, a sophomore from New Windsor, Md.;  Craig Russell, a junior from Visalia, Calif.; Travis Begley, a sophomore from Plainview; and Mandy-Jo Laurent, a sophomore from Nacogdoches finished sixth, seventh, eighth, tenth and eleventh overall, respectively.

Other team members include:

• Blaine Corliss, a junior from Estancia, N.M.
• Cody Helms, a junior from Cleburne
• Faith Jurek, a sophomore from Goldthwaite
• Jerra McMath, a junior from Estancia, N.M.
• Andrea Nordman, a junior from Florence
• Tyler Travis, a sophomore from Pleasant Valley
• Kaitlyn True, a sophomore from Plainview
• Amanda White, junior from Garden City, Kan.
• Dakota Williams, a sophomore from Glenrose

The team is coached by Meat Science Graduate Student Shanna Ward and Miller.

This was the last contest of the spring for the 2011 team. The students will compete at four more contests during the fall semester, as well as an international competition in Australia this summer.