
From meat judging to chess and everything in between, Texas Tech bested the competition this past year.
Students at Texas Tech University are true competitors, and the championships they won in 2019 reaffirmed that. From first-time wins to reclaiming titles, Texas Tech came out on top several times this past year.
Here's a brief look at all the titles Texas Tech teams won:
Check 'Em: Texas Tech Knight Raiders Dominate Pan-Am Chess Championship
At the end of each of the six rounds of the 2019 Pan-American Intercollegiate Chess Championship, the competitors facing the Texas Tech University A Team all heard the same thing: checkmate.
"We won all six matches," said Texas Tech Knight Raiders Coach Alex Onischuk. "That is very unusual to achieve in this tournament – I don't remember the last time when a team finished 6-0 in this competition."
But that's just what the team did, earning first place in the tournament, held Dec. 27-30 at the Charlotte Chess Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The win secured Texas Tech's spot at the President's Cup, also known as the final four of College Chess, April 3-5 in New York City.
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School of Law Earns Top Ranking in ABA Competitions Championship
After placing second in the inaugural competition in 2018, the Texas Tech University School of Law ascended to the top in the 2019 American Bar Association (ABA) Competitions Championship.
The ranking, compiled by the ABA, measures overall performance for law schools across the U.S. in four practical skills competition categories – arbitration, negotiation, client counseling and the National Appellate Advocacy Competition (NAAC moot court).
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Parliamentary Debate Team Wins National Round Robin Championship
As an unlikely pair, they never thought they would be national champions. Max Groznik and Fiker Tesfaye are members of the Texas Tech University Parliamentary Debate Team through the Department of Communication Studies in the College of Media & Communication.
Recently, the pair was named national champions at the National Round Robin debate tournament at the University of California-Berkeley. This was the third year of the tournament.
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Texas Tech Spirit Squads Win Big in Pom and Cheer National Championships
The Texas Tech Spirit Program's Pom and Co-Ed Cheer squads competed April 5 at the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) & National Dance Alliance (NDA) Collegiate Cheer and Dance Championships in Daytona Beach, Florida. The Co-Ed Cheer Squad took first place in the Co-Ed Cheer category, while the Pom Squad finished in first place in the Division IA Pom category and second in the Division IA Dance Jazz category. The Pom Squad also won the choreography award in both categories for each routine.
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Texas Tech Meat Animal Evaluation Team Captures Fifth National Title
The Texas Tech University Meat Animal Evaluation Team won the National Meat Animal Evaluation competition for the sixth time in school history, earning the title of national champions, on April 1. Oklahoma State University hosted the competition this year at the Oklahoma City Stockyards.
Texas Tech secured the title with a total of 8,953.666 points, outpacing Big 12 Conference rivals Kansas State University (8,935.334) and Oklahoma State (8,818.333). Texas Tech finished first or second in six of the seven divisions, taking first place in beef evaluation, market animal division and meats division.
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Texas Tech Claims National Championship at Reciprocal Meat Conference
Texas Tech University's Meat Science Academic Quiz Bowl Team earned the title of National Champions at the 72nd Reciprocal Meat Conference (RMC) held June 23-26 in Fort Collins, Colorado. Two teams from Texas Tech went head to head in the final round of competition after eliminating 27 teams from other universities.
The 2019 Undergraduate Quiz Bowl contest, hosted by Colorado State University and the American Meat Science Association (AMSA) and sponsored by Hormel Foods, was an intense and competitive event featuring 116 undergraduates competing on 29 teams. This is the ninth time Texas Tech has won the competition, previously capturing the title in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2016.
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Meat Judging Team Shows Skills, Gains Valuable Experience With Overseas Trip
As the fall semester at Texas Tech University geared up, the Meat Judging Team in the Department of Animal & Food Sciences was once again considered an odds-on favorite to capture another intercollegiate national championship. While pursuing its 14th crown, it added a unique distinction to its list of accomplishments – a world championship.
This summer, several members of the team, part of the College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, traveled to Australia to compete at the 2019 Australian Intercollegiate Meat Judging Association (ICMJ) conference and workshop in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, in the southeastern part of the country. This was the second time Texas Tech has been invited to and won the contest, taking the title in 2011 as well.
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Texas Tech Meat Judging Team Captures 14th National Championship
The Texas Tech University Meat Judging Team, housed within the Department of Animal & Food Sciences in the College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources, capped the 2019 competitive season by capturing the program's 14th national championship on Sunday at the American Meat Science Association International Meat Judging Contest in Dakota City, Nebraska.
Texas Tech, dubbed this spring by Sports Illustrated as "the Alabama football of the meat judging world," has won at least one championship in each of the last four decades, beginning with its first crown in 1989. Texas Tech also has won a national championship every 10 years since that first one, claiming crowns in 1999, 2009 and now 2019.
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Texas Tech Wins Stock Horse of Texas Collegiate World Championship
The Texas Tech Ranch Horse Team won both the Stock Horse of Texas (SHTX) Collegiate World Championship and the SHTX Collegiate Reserve Championship at the 2019 Stock Horse of Texas Collegiate World Championships on Nov. 12 in Abilene. Texas Tech will be one of three teams representing the SHTX at the inaugural Collegiate Challenge at the Road to the Horse this February.
The Texas Tech red team outplaced North Central Texas College by 40 points, 257-217, and Texas A&M University by 89.5 points, 257-167.5. The Texas Tech black team outplaced North Texas Central College by 4.5 points, 221.5-214, and Texas A&M by 54 points, 221.5-167.5.
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Men's Track Claims National Championship
For the first time in the history of Texas Tech, a men's athletic team returned to campus as national champions. The Red Raider track and field team claimed the NCAA Outdoor Championship in June after receiving points contributions from every single student-athlete that suited up on the final day.
Tech entered the weekend tied for the national lead in track qualifications with the University of Houston with seven. The title race was to be between the Red Raiders and cross-state Cougars, made even more exciting by the fact that the two programs sent athletes head-to-head in three events.
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