TAMUK Rangeland Plant ID team wins big

Cole, Allison placed high individually

The Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) Rangeland Plant ID team has kicked of its competition season with a win at the Texas Section Society for Range Management Collegiate Plant ID Contest in Denton, Texas.

TAMUK Rangeland Plant ID team is currently made up of many returning members, along with a handful of newly recruited members.

The team travels to three competitions a year, two are state competitions and one being a national competition. The team has plans to attend the next competition in Boise, Idaho, for the National Society of Range Management Conference on Feb. 14.When preparing for competition the members go through a list of steps to prepare for success.

The team meets weekly for practices where they review a list of plants that were provided to them for the contest and they practice identifying each plant by having quizzes on them. These quizzes give the coaches an idea of who the top members are and how to assemble each team.

“Teams are organized of four individuals, however only the top three scores go towards the team,” Coach Lori Massey explained.

In Denton, team 1, including Peter Cole, Josh Allison, Nadia Castanon and Carolina Munoz placed first as a team. Team 2, including Shanna

Gleason, Andres Rosales, Meghan Anderson and Jack Davison placed third as a team. Individually, Cole was frst place high individual and Allison second place high indi-