OAC Weeds Team 2016 wins at Northeast Weed Science Society Collegiate Weed Contest

On Tuesday July 26th, 2016, the University of Guelph OAC Weeds Team participated in the Northeast Weed Science Collegiate Contest hosted by Virginia Tech University, In Blacksburg Virginia. Universities attending this year’s contest included: Pennsylvania State University, North Carolina State University, Cornell University and the University of Guelph. Two graduate and four undergraduate teams from OAC competed in the competition. The purpose of this contest was to provide students with an educational experience that tests their applied agronomic skills in the disciplines of weed science and agronomy.

The graduate team consisting of Mike Schryver, Meghan Grguric, Taiga Cholette and Brittany Hedges placed first in the graduate student competition.  Three undergraduate teams from the University of Guelph placed first, second and third in the competition.  The first place team consisted of Matthew Rundle, Alexander Sanders, Hanna Petrovsky and Kaylene Sangers. Members of the team that placed second overall were Michael Palermo, Aaron Beunen, Ryan Carlow and Peter Buys.  The third place team consisted of Laura Buys, Caleb Niemeyer, Amelia Judge and Brett Hilker.  The remaining students from the undergraduate and graduate teams competed well and placed competitively within their categories.

Top over all individual undergraduate performance awards were presented to Alexander Sanders, Matthew Rundle and Brendan Metzger who placed first, second and third, respectively in the undergraduate competition.  Todd Frey was acknowledged for having the highest math score in the graduate competition.  These awards recognized their outstanding performance in weed science and agronomy.

The OAC Weed Team was coached by Clarence Swanton and Darren Robinson.  Special thanks to Peter Smith, Mike Cowbrough, Francois Tardif, and Robert Moloney for their contributions to the success of the 2016 OAC Weeds Team.  The financial support of Syngenta Canada Inc., Monsanto Canada, Valent Canada Inc., Bayer CropScience, BASF, FMC Corporation, Dupont Canada Crop Protection, Nufarm Agriculture Inc., Dow AgroSciences, Grain Farmers of Ontario and the Ontario Weed Committee is gratefully acknowledged.

Congratulations!

Back Row by the sign (left to right):  Mike Schryver, Kyle Smith, Kelvin Knip, Michael Palermo

Second Row (left to right):  Ryan Carlow, Aaron Beunen, Todd Frey, Alex Sanders, David Westerveld, Brendan Metzger, Caleb Niemeyer, Ken MacKenzie

Front row (left to right): Matt Rundle, Meghan Grguric, Kaylene Sangers, Amelia Judge, Brittany Hedges, Joshua Nasielski, Taiga Cholette, Marinda Gras,  Kayla Veldman, Laura Buys, Peter Buys, Brett Hilker, Hanna Petrovsky, Clarence Swanton, Darren Robinson