Fresno State sweeps soil judging regional team and individual titles

The Fresno State soil judging team celebrated a first-place finish in the 2024 Region 6 Collegiate Soil Judging Contest on Saturday, Nov. 2, near Albuquerque, New Mexico to qualify for the 2025 national competition, which will be hosted April 27 to May 2 by the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Plant Science Department seniors Tanner Ozuna (Hanford), Adrian Gutierrez (Merced) and Hannah Chamberlin (Fresno) placed first, second and third overall, respectively. The overall team win was the first for Fresno State under the guidance of plant science faculty and team coach Michael Sowers.

Among the 38 contestants, senior Jimena Quezada Ayon (Fresno, sixth), junior Mariela Perez-Garcia (Kerman, seventh) and senior Juan Magana (Firebaugh, ninth) also finished in the top 10 overall.

Other members of the team included seniors Gabriela Rios (Sanger, 11th), William Dowling (Fresno, 14th) and Aaron Delgado (Avenal, 23rd) and junior Emma Fabbri (Bakersfield, 28th). 

“The team’s performance was incredible,” Sowers said. ”Having six team members in the top 10 and taking first, second and third was an amazing feat, especially when competing against top universities with soil science majors. The students had to learn, grasp and understand not only how to describe soils, but to also interpret their features and classify their taxonomy. Their strong performance in this competition was a result of their hard work and dedication throughout the semester. I’m looking forward to taking them to nationals.” 

The contest was hosted by New Mexico State University on the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service research farm in Los Lunas, New Mexico along the west side of the Rio Grande River. Soils evaluated for the contest consisted of recent and old alluvial, water-based deposits and eolian, wind-based deposits. 

Students were scored based on their soil pit observations, evaluations of physical and chemical properties and related feasibility in agricultural and engineering applications. 

Fresno State students who competed are part of the plant science soil judging class taught by Sowers, who also works as a managing soil scientist at Valley Science and Engineering, a Valmont company. 

The course emphasizes USDA methods for describing and interpreting soils for their capabilities and uses to prepare students for careers in a wide range of agricultural and natural resource-related areas such as the Natural Resource Conservation Service, U.S. Forestry Service, Bureau of Land Management, private farm management and environmental consulting.

Under the guidance of Sowers, Fresno State also made trips to the national competition in 2024 (24th), 2018 (15th), 2017 (20th) and 2016 (18th). 

Other teams that earned 2025 national invites from the recent regional event included Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo (second place) and UC Davis (third place). New Mexico State and Cal Poly-Humboldt also competed in the five-team event.