The judging team members of the winning Ohio State Agricultural Technical Institute (ATI) are no strangers to the intense competition of the National Judging Contests. Last year, team members Tanner Topp, Kaleb Kliner and Hannah Dye were part of the Ohio 4-H team that fell just a point short of claiming the National 4-H Dairy Judging title. This year, they were back for redemption joined by their fourth team member John Paulin and first-year head coach Donald Hange.
The team put on an impressive show, tallying an overall score of 2,251 and steamrolling second-place Kaskaskia College by 64 points and averaging 46.87 points per class. The group won the Ayrshire, Brown Swiss, Holstein, and Red and White breeds and out talked the field in the reasons contest, edging the Kaskaskia College team by a point. SUNY Cobleskill rounded out the top three teams followed by Michigan State University Ag Tech in fourth and Modesto Junior College in fifth.
Ohio State ATI team member Tanner Topp battled out the individual overall victory, besting Britney Hill, State University of New York Cobleskill, by three points. She won the reasons division with an average score of 46.5 on four reasons classes. Topp's teammates, Kliner and Dye, followed his example individually placing third and fourth, respectively. Nicole Chase from Michigan State University Ag Tech rounded out the top five.
