National Champions Recognized at Football Game
Texas Tech to Honored Two National Championship Teams during A&M Halftime
Department of Animal and Food Sciences Extends National Titles List to 20.
Texas Tech University used halftime of the ever-anticipated gridiron grudge-match between the Red Raiders and Texas A&M University to recognize its two newest national championship teams – both from the Department of Animal and Food Sciences.
Texas Tech’s Meat Animal Evaluation Team and Academic Quiz Bowl Team both earned national titles over the spring and summer, bringing the total to 20 for the department.
“We have a program that recruits outstanding students and has training programs capable of taking them to the next level,” said Department of Animal and Food Sciences Chairman Kevin Pond. “If you take great students and train them appropriately, you can expect them to excel. I am sure these will not be the last championships we win.”
The quiz bowl team won its championship in June at the 60th annual Reciprocal Meats Conference, marking the third time in the bowl’s six-year history that Red Raiders have taken the title. The event included more than 20 university teams from across the nation.
The evaluation team won its title at the 2007 National Meat Animal Evaluation Contest, held in March, surpassing the second place team by 177 points. Texas Tech claimed eight out of the top ten individual rankings in the contest.
“Over the past 40 years, I have followed intercollegiate judging programs at four universities, and, in my opinion, I believe Texas Tech is currently the number one school in the nation for judging,” said Adjunct Professor and former meat judging coach from the 1980s Gordon W. Davis. Davis is currently chairman of CEV Multimedia and a significant supporter of intercollegiate judging programs. “The quality, the depth and the breadth of these programs is astounding.”
Pond noted that the recognition was especially fitting during the football game against A&M – one of Texas Tech’s strongest competitors in the realm of agricultural judging.
“I am proud to see the accomplishments of our academic teams recognized at an event attended by so many,” he said.
(Caption)Team members included (L-R): Meat Science Quiz Bowl Team Travis Chapin, Coach Heather Rogers, Matt Sellers, Megan Mitchell, Travis O’Quinn, (not pictured Austin Voyles) Meat Animal Evaluation Team Garrett Holder, Clint Halfmann, Jonathan Hisey, Greg McNeil, Andrew Hokansan, Jordan Hicks, Amber Harris, Matthew Stolz, Landi Woolley, Jeff Berry, Coach Ryan Rathmann, Coach John Kellermeier, and Todd Beyers ( not pictured Brett Gaylord)
Contact: Cory Chandler, cory.chandler@ttu.edu