Kalispell FFA had a standout competitive season this fall with student Ethan Bay placing second in the nation in Farm and Agribusiness Management.

Farm and Agribusiness Management is one of several Career Development Events students could compete in at the National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis. More than 65,000 students attended the national conference, which also featured different educational sessions. Up to 50 teams, one from each state, may qualify to compete in each event. Teams and individuals may earn gold, silver or bronze awards.

The Farm and Agribusiness Management team as a whole placed fifth. In addition to Bay, team members included Colton Henriksson, Evan Heupel and Grayce Siderius. Individually, Heupel received a gold award and placed 18th overall. Siderius also received a gold award and Henriksson, silver.

Bay has participated in FFA for four years. This was his first time competing at the national convention. To practice for the Farm and Agribusiness Management event, which involved a virtual proctored test and an in-person test during the convention. Competitors were given an hour and a half to two hours to complete tests. There is also a team problem. To prepare, he studied practice tests and tests from previous competition years to see where he might place based on his scores.

“Like the 2019 mock test. With my scores I knew I had the potential to get in the top 10,” he said, but he didn’t know where the numbers would fall on competition day.

When the placements were announced on stage at the Lucas Oil Stadium, competition organizers kept the excitement going by first calling to the stage and announcing individual’s who made the top 10 in no particular order.

“It was kind of stressful,” he said. “Being in the top 10 I would have taken any place, but I was hoping to get in the top five.”

As the rankings were announced up to third place, Bay recalled thinking, “Oh my lord, I made the top three.”

Finally, his name was called as the second place winner and he was not disappointed.

“It was amazing,” he said.

Bay said he’s always enjoyed the business side of agriculture and “crunching the numbers” in any area related to finance.

“I enjoy looking at numbers, using those numbers to analyze things and interpreting data,” he said.

With graduation imminent, Bay said he plans to major in financial engineering at Montana State University in Bozeman.

Also competing at nationals, the Kalispell FFA Horse Judging team composed of Danielle Dixon, Rylee Glimm, Jordyn Greene and Libby Reiner received a silver award. Individually, Dixon and Glimm received gold awards while Greene and Reiner received silver.

The Kalispell FFA program also received a 2 Star National Chapter award this year (3 Star being the highest).

Kalispell FFA also competed in the Northern International Livestock Exposition in Billings, which features teams and Montana Ag Days at Montana State University in Bozeman, which resulted in six teams placing first, which is unusual for the program, Kalispell FFA adviser Brian Bay said.

“They did outstanding this year,” he said. “We just have terrific kids that work very hard being competitive and they have a love for learning.”

Following are top 10 team and individual results from Northern International Livestock Exposition and Montana Ag Days.

Northern International Livestock Exposition

Second place

Sales and Service team — Bryce Dorsett, Rylee Glimm, Ella Lund and Addie Shepard (eighth place individually).

Fifth place

Horse Judging team — Danielle Dixon, Rylee Glimm (seventh place individually), Jordyn Greene and Addisyn Jensen.

Livestock Judging team — Aiden Delong, Evan Heupel, Dillon Jewett and Beth Young.

Montana Ag Days

First place

Agronomy team — Ethan Bay (first place individually), Aaron Connors, Evan Heupel (fifth place individually) and Addie Shepard (10th place individually)

Forestry team — Ethan Bay (2nd place individually), Dillon Jewett (fourth place individually), Cazz Rankosky (seventh place individually) and Cameron Seymour (third place individually).

Horse Judging team — Sophie Banzet, Danielle Dixon (seventh place individually), Jordyn Greene (sixth place individually) and Addisyn Jensen.

Junior Horse Judging team — Emma Boline, Gabrielle Evert, Charli Hill (fourth place individually) and Rachel Mikelson (fifth place individually).

Sales and Service teams — Team 1 includes Aaron Connors, Rylee Glimm (eighth place individually), Ella Lund and Addie Shepard. Team 2 includes Sophie Banzet (first place individually) and Kenzie Brandt (second place individually)

Livestock Judging — Evan Heupel (second place individually), Dillon Jewett (sixth place individually), Ella Lund (eighth place individually) and Tracen McIntyre.

Third place

Meat Science team — Ethan Bay (fifth place individually), Evan Heupel (fourth place individually), Acelyn Hunt and Mabel Peterson.

Fourth place

Veterinary Science team — Ethan Bay (third place individually), Shelby Bergman,

Jordyn Greene (fifth place individually) and Josiah Groves.

Sixth place

Ag Mechanics team — Mason Dall, Dillon Jewett, Tracen McIntyre and Cameron Seymour.

Ninth place

Junior Livestock team — Manny Barone, Samara Ritter, Laila Sargent (fourth place individually) and Jayla Wise.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.