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“Even a pandemic cannot overshadow the pride we have in the accomplishments of this year’s BEST participants, both in and out of the show ring,” OCA executive director Elizabeth Harsh said in a release. “We sincerely appreciate the BEST program’s sponsoring partners whose tremendous support makes this youth development program possible.”
As for winners from Clark County, Peyton Bumgardner had the breed division champion for Angus steers while Kendall Bishop won third place among Chianina steers.
In the low-percentage “any other breed category”, Lara Rittenhouse had reserve champion heifer while Lexi Rittenhouse had reserve champion among steers of any other breed.
Karlie Palmer’s entry was fourth in market heifers, and she had the fifth-place crossbred steer.
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Among novice champions, Lara Rittenhouse had the eighth-place heifer project while Bumgardner’s angus steer was eighth overall in market animals and Tyler Legge-Bobo was ninth with a crossbred project.
In the category of best bred and owned champions, Paige Phillips was third overall in market animals with a ShortHornPlus project.
Lane Flax was seventh overall in beginner showmanship and Lara Rittenhouse was fifth in novice showmanship while Matthew Hamilton was 10th in novice showmanship.
In stockmanship, Lara Rittenhouse was the champion among novices while Lara Rittenhouse was fourth in the beginner class. Tyler Legge-Bobo and Matthew Hamilton finished fourth and fifth, respectively, in the novice class. While Tyler Novak and Courtney Hamilton were fourth and fifth in the senior class.
Stockmanship is a new category that measures animal husbandry skills and knowledge.
Credit: HANDOUT
Credit: HANDOUT
Courtney Hamilton was also recognized as a Character Traits winner for her boldness. The Character Traits awards are meant to recognize leaders regardless of age.
From Champaign County, Taylor Ayars had the reserve champion angus heifer, Haillei Jenkins had the reserve champion Hereford steer and Darby Ayars had the reserve champion MaineTainer heifer and reserve champion ShortHornPlus heifer.
Among novices, Jenkins’ Hereford was fifth overall in market animals, and Darby Ayars had the third overall heifer in the best bred and downed category.
Darby Ayars was sixth overall in junior showmanship while Shae Conrad was eighth and Jaycee Yelton was seventh overall in novice showmanship.
BEST is a youth program from the OCA that recognizes Ohio’s junior beef exhibitors for participation and placings through a series of sanctioned cattle shows that include showmanship competitions. Participants in sanctioned shows earn points for their placings.
This year included 10 shows with more than 500 participants.