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With Achievement Days around the corner, 4-Hers see ‘bling’

By Sue Sitter - | May 5, 2023

Submitted photo 4-H state champion hippology teams from Pierce County pose with their awards. From left in the back row are Junior Team Coach Sandra Scherr, Maggie Iverson, Katelyn Mattern, Rebecca Morstad, Kami Guty and Senior Team Coach Barb Rice. From left in the front row are junior team members Micah Bohl, Payton Firman, Morgan Scherr and Addi Mack.

Sandra Scherr of the North Dakota State University Extension office in the Pierce County Courthouse often jokes that her desk area has been filling up with “bling.”

Scherr is administrative assistant to Pierce County Extension Agent Brenden Klebe. She oversees 4-H activities for the office.

“I’m getting multiple bling,” she said recently, describing the medals and ribbons that come to her office after Pierce County 4-H teams take top awards at competitions. “I’m always getting more in, and when I do, I say, ‘We’ve got bling,'” she said. “They’ve done amazing.”

Hippology team bound for nationals

The Pierce County 4-H Senior Hippology Team earned a spot at the Western National Roundup in Denver, Colorado in January with first-place performances in horse judging and hippology.

Dedicated to the study of horses, the 4-H Hippology program puts teams through a rigorous course of study over several months. Participants prepare for a written exam, hands-on problem solving at stations, team problem solving with an oral presentation, plus judging live horses.

Pierce County 4-H sent a senior team of area high school students and a junior team of elementary school students to the state horse show, held in Fargo at the end of March.

“Our senior team at state won the hippology contest. They came in first. They won the horse judging portion of it, also,” Scherr said.

“We had an amazing state contest,” she added. “For the hippology part, our juniors also won first (place).”

Scherr said since the senior team had won in both the hippology and horse judging contests, they had a choice of which event to compete in at nationals. The team chose to compete in horse judging.

“When they win their hippology contest next year, they’ll go back to hippology,” Scherr said.

When they win?

“My girls are super-smart,” she said, explaining her confidence. “I love my girls.”

Scherr said senior team members Kami Guty, Katelyn Mattern, Maggie Iverson and Rebecca Morstad would make the trip to Denver for nationals.

Although the junior team would not have a chance to compete in nationals, Scherr said the team members would move on to the intermediate level next year.

She said she had no doubt the juniors would continue with the program through the senior level.

“Both teams did amazing throughout the year,” Scherr added. “There were top five finishes. A lot of them were first and second on both sides of the team.”

“We had so many individual awards, it’s amazing,” she added. “Morgan Scherr won first individual in horse judging as a junior. Then, Micah Bohl won third individual in horse judging (at the junior level).”

Reading individual scores for senior team members, Scherr said, “In horse judging, it looks like Kami Guty got first individual, and Katelyn Mattern got third. Then, Maggie Iverson got fifth. As a team, they got first place. Individually, the girls got top five.”

A third competition, called Quiz Bowl, involved more testing on everything from horse anatomy to nutrition and care for horses.

“In Quiz Bowl, the juniors took fourth, and Morgan Scherr took first as an individual,” Scherr said, adding she was proud of Morgan, her daughter.

“She’s worked really hard, and all of our girls have worked really hard,” Scherr said.

The seniors came in second in the Quiz Bowl event. “That’s reserve champion in the state,” she said.

Scoring as individuals in the Quiz Bowl competition for seniors were Guty, who came in third; Iverson, who came in fifth place, Mattern, who scored in seventh place, and Morstad, who took tenth place.

“We had an amazing state contest,” she said. “Our kids are rock stars.”

‘Huge’ shooting program

“We’ve got a huge shooting program here,” she added. “It’s awesome. We have awesome coaches and volunteers.”

The Pierce County 4-H air rifle team competed at the state level April 1. Archery teams representing Pierce County at the beginner, intermediate and senior level competed at the Minot State Fairgrounds in Minot April 22.

“Our air rifle team is pretty much all young kids, and they did great this year,” Scherr said.

Placing at the beginner level in the air rifle competition were Kaden Vold, who placed fourth. Xavier Fritel and Luke Voeller took fifth and sixth place. Jared Migler placed 10th, followed by Tyson Yoder. Grant Teigen placed 14th, Hayden Jacobson placed 16th, followed by Rocky Hager. Jackson Childress placed 21st.

In the state archery competition, Harper Heilman took 13th place in the beginner freestyle division. Gage Heilman scored 37th in the beginner division.

In the junior freestyle event, Aliyah Williams took eighth place; Matthew Arnston took 14th place and Reagan Hager took 23rd place. Brandie Yoder took 67th place in the event, and Alyssa Woodall took 71st place.

In the senior freestyle event, Jaxson Heilman scored as a high individual in fourth place. Also scoring among the top archers was Monica Yoder, who tied for 10th place. Rounding out the scores for Pierce County were Mya Schneibel, 29th place, Ryleigh Keating, 31st place, Rylee Geiszler, 34th place, Luke Arnston, 35th place, Seth Kuhnhenn, 43rd place, Haylee Heilman, 46th place and Ashley Woodall in 49th place.

“I’m just super-proud of everyone. They work really, really hard and they represent Pierce County in the best way,” Scherr said.

“Achievement Days is getting to be right around the corner,” she added. “We’re super excited because we have a lot more cattle than last year, and I told Don Jelsing, we’ll get that barn filled up.”