Colfax FFA team to vie for national title

COLFAX — Colfax High School FFA students will be taking on Oklahoma this spring to compete in the National Land and Range Judging Contest.

Seniors Darin Repp, Karly Wigen and Marchele McNeilly, along with juniors Ainslee Imler and Isabella Huntley will represent Washington in the competition in April.

The opportunity was given to the group after they took first place in October’s State Land Judging Competition held in Reardan, Wash. Repp also placed in the top 10 individually in the state contest.

Michael Heitstuman, FFA adviser, said this is the first time Colfax students will participate in the national land judging competition. He said the chapter had a chance to participate in 2020 after FFA kids won the state contest in 2019, but plans were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Colfax FFA, composed of about 50 members, is one of the most successful chapters in the region, he said. Students have always been fairly competitive in soil and land evaluation and agricultural sales, he added. They often take home wins in state ag sales as well as livestock showings at the local Palouse Empire Fair.

McNeilly said the land judging competition requires contestants to evaluate four 40-inch excavated pits at three cropland sites and one home site. Competitors check how good the farmland will be based on a number of factors like soil depth, permeability and texture.

Huntley said the contest demands a wide range of skills and memorization that they spend hours preparing for.

The team has devoted many late nights to studying, Wigen said. They’ll get together right after sports practices to go over soil types, land classes and even place tape on lockers to measure correctly.

“Our coaches definitely like to throw everything at us to practice every exception or wild scenario,” McNeilly said. “So that way when we get to the contest it should be smooth sailing.”

Huntley said what they learn is part of their daily life, with all of them being farm kids.

“This contest is basically what farmers do all the time,” she said. “We all live on different lands and have crops. … What we learn is applicable to our real world lives, our homes and our families.”

While this is the first time students will attend the national land judging contest, it isn’t the only competition they’ve gone out of state for.

McNeilly, Repp and Wigen have all competed at the National FFA Convention and Expo held in Indianapolis, Ind., for agricultural sales.

Repp and Wigen’s team won first in the Washington FFA Agricultural Sales contest in the spring of 2023 and took home third in the nation that fall. McNeilly’s team placed first in the state competition in 2022 and got the chance to compete at the national level that year.

Huntley and Imler have also been recognized at the state level. In 2024, Huntley won second in the state Prepared Public Speaking CDE. Imler’s team her first year was announced as state champions in 2023.

The group is most excited to visit a different section of the U.S. and see how soil in Oklahoma differs from Washington.

Scholarships and cash prizes are available for high-placing individuals and teams. They’re hoping to place, but if not, McNeilly said they’ll still be winning in experience and an opportunity to travel.

“Already going is plenty of bragging rights for Washington state,” she said.

Pearce can be reached at epearce@dnews.com.