The contest gives students an opportunity to apply their course work to the real world, where the ability to understand soils is critical to industries such as construction, resource extraction, agriculture and environmental management. UMD has fielded a regional team since the contests began in 1961 and competed nationally 40 times.

“There is nothing better than getting the opportunity to learn about new soils and gain field experience that we can directly relate to our future careers,” said team member Nicole Zimmerman, a senior environmental science and technology (ENST) major planning to pursue a career in soil science consulting.

“This team has made a huge difference in my senior year and I’m so proud to be a part of it," said ENST major Gabriel Acevedo. “I like soil judging because instead of learning the science, I’m doing the science.”

Students traveled to the semi-arid region of northwestern Oklahoma, home to cattle ranches and oil wells, and spent four days getting accustomed to the region’s complex soils before the two-day competition. During the competition, students were reminded that it was a region hit hard by the “Dust Bowl” from 1930 to 1936, and had to wear goggles for eye protection in the pits.

The UMD team was led by its only veteran soil judging competitor, senior environmental science and policy (ENSP) major Madelyn Haines.

“Traveling to different areas and successfully describing their soils is the ultimate learning experience,” she said. “As a team, we’ve given our blood, sweat and happy tears to successfully end with new knowledge and the title we’ve worked so hard for.”

The lack of more experience with soil judging on the team made coming out on top a huge surprise, said junior Alex Quigley, an ENST major who took fourth place in the individual competition.

Other team members included ENST majors Patrick Burke, David Hutch and Gina Jacob; ENSP major Joshue Edelin and plant sciences major Nickolaus Kioutas. ENST doctoral student Jocelyn Wardrup and Associate Professor Brian Needelman served as coaches.

The first-place victory builds upon UMD's impressive soil judging resume, which in addition to six national titles includes 13 Final Four finishes at the national competition and 26 regional championships.