Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Rupp. (Left to right) Tracy’s Connor Lanoue, Taylor Squires, Elijah Lightfoot, Elsie Knott and Nolan Carlson hold their first place team trophy for the poultry event at the FFA State Convention last week in Minneapolis. Below: Photo submitted by Annabel Coudron. (Left to right) Marshall’s Annabel Coudron, Riley Pfannschmidt, Gavin Goblirsch and Spencer Brink hold their fifth place team trophy for the poultry event at the FFA State Convention last week in Minneapolis. Coudron placed first individually in the event.

MINNEAPOLIS — Several area schools and students earned top honors at the 2025 Future Farmers of America (FFA) State Convention last week, including the Tracy team bringing home a first place team finish in the poultry evaluation, and Marshall junior Annabel Coudron placing first overall individually in poultry.

“I did not see that coming,” Tracy’s Elijah Lightfoot, a part of the poultry team, said. “They go from fifth to first, and when they announced the second place team, we realized we won and I was just in shock … It feels worth all the practice.”

The convention took place last Monday and Tuesday between the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campuses, the Minnesota State Fairgrounds and the St. Paul Pipefitters Training and Certification Center.

In the poultry evaluation competition, students take a written exam on production and management, while also physically grading poultry products like eggs and whole meat birds.

Coudron finished first out of 167 total individual participants.

“I was hoping to get at least in the top three, and I knew the night before that I was in the top three,” Coudron said. “I was happy with just getting third honestly, or second. I was not expecting to get first, so it was a nice surprise.”

Tracy

The Tracy team placed first of 48 teams in poultry, just two points ahead of Russell-Tyler-Ruthton’s second place finish.

Individually, Taylor Squires and Lightfoot placed sixth and seventh respectively. Connor Lanoue took 11th, and Nolan Carlson finished 21st. Elsie Knott is also a part of the poultry team.

“We come in here like Tuesdays and Thursdays every morning at 7 a.m., and we go over [flash cards], and we look at identifying parts,” Lightfoot said. “We’re going over test questions, knowledge questions of the species of birds, things like that.”

Tracy’s first place finish was the team’s first Career Development Event (CDE) winning contest in 17 years, when it last won Agricultural Mechanics in 2008. This also marks Tracy’s first year since 1984 placing first in poultry.

“Three years ago was the first time that us three (Lanoue, Squires and Lightfoot) went to state together (in 2022) … We didn’t know what to expect, we got told you guys got eighth as a team, and we were bummed,” Lanoue said. “The next year (2023), I feel like that was a turning point. We got second that year … Last year (2024), I felt like we came in thinking we were going to win and I think that’s why we didn’t win (placed 4th). So this year, it was like we have to do it.”

The poultry team now has secured a spot in the FFA National Convention in late October in Indianapolis, where the group will compete against teams from across the country.

“These kids worked super hard … It was just our year,” poultry coach John Lanoue said. “They put a lot of time in and it paid off. We got a lot of work to do between now and nationals. There’s new things that nationals has that are different, so we’ll learn those, and let it roll.”

Tracy senior Marin Knott was also named the 2025 FFA State Star in Agriculture, Food and Natural Resource Sciences (AFNR), recognizing her for an agricultural experience project she did.

“For the past four years, I have been doing trials in a swine research barn. I run my own trials, I analyze the data and write a paper for it,” Knott said. “This year, I wrote an 11-page paper on it, I filled out a proficiency application as well, and then got my state degree, so that I could run for the Star AGNR Science.”

In order to run for a state star selection, students must be actively pursuing their FFA state degree, which consists of a handful of requirements like community service hours, raising funds and participating in events.

Knott, who earned her state degree this year, said she had to go through several rounds of long interviews during regionals and again at state presenting her research.

“It means a lot. My dad is a swine nutritionist, so I’ve got to spend a lot of time with him doing my projects in the research barn,” Knott said. “It’s just super cool. I’ve done all this work … And it paid off for sure.”

Other significant team awards Tracy acquired was an eighth place finish in Milk Quality, 12th in Farm Business Management, 15th in Forestry, 13th in Livestock Evaluation, 21st in Best Informed Greenhand and 28th in Soils.

Marshall

Marshall also earned a top placement in poultry, taking fifth place.

Along with Coudron’s top award, Spencer Brink finished in 27th, Riley Pfannschmidt in 43rd, and Gavin Goblirsch in 67th.

“It was good [to place in the top-five as a team],” Coudron said. “We were just happy that we got onto stage and got to walk across.”

The Tigers placed 51st in the Best Informed Greenhand portion of the convention, with Avery Schauman, Zoey Goblirsch and Trinity Meiners placing 131st, 139th and 187th individually.

RTR

RTR also came back with a handful of team awards.

The Knight’s second place team award in poultry was accomplished by Autumn Labrune’s fourth place individual finish, while Riley Van Eck, Jayden Schreurs and Maryann Pagel all placed ninth, 16th and 19th respectively.

The Knights also took second in Companion Animal Science. Jilian Schoenfeld placed fifth, Summer Labrune took 11th, Dilyn Werkman followed for 57th and Rilyn Greenfield placed 199th.

RTR placed sixth as a team in Livestock Evaluation, 14th in both Meats and Soils, and 16th in both Agronomy and Farm Business Management.

MCC

The Murray County Central team had a strong performance at state as well with numerous team placements.

The Rebels took fourth place in Soils out of 45 teams. Aubrey Biegler placed 15th individually, followed by Holland Vogel, Johanna Pickard and Joelle Hellewell finishing 17th, 29th and 98th respectively.

MCC brought home fifth place in Floriculture, led by a second place finish from Sophia Nelson. Krystyn Betz, Olivia Kathman, Emma Risacher took 26th, 62nd and 90th out of 181 individuals.

Rounding out MCC’s team awards included a sixth place finish in Meats, 10th in General Livestock and 22nd in Farm Business Management.