The University of Maryland Soil Judging had a successful trip to the 2017 Northeast Regional Soil Judging contest, qualifying for the national competition by placing 2nd overall.
Philip Schwartz won the individual portion of the competition, scoring a whopping 43 points over the 2nd place finisher. The team had five other finishers in the top 15: Victoria Monsaint-Queeney 10th, Philip Flint 12th, Moises Umanzor 13th, Evan Park 14th, and Cathy Wang 15th. Also on the team were Justin Derato, Dyani Frye, Rachael Heisey, Jonathan Wiechecki, and Jesse Wyner. Led by Derato, Frye, and Heisey, Maryland also took 2nd in the group judging competition.
The contest was hosted by the University of Rhode Island, who also won the contest. Delaware Valley College took third, rounding out the contingent of northeast teams heading to nationals, which will be hosted in the spring of 2017 by the University of Tennessee-Martin. T
he team enjoyed seeing a diverse array of soils found in the glaciated geology of Rhode Island, including cemented Spodosls, dense till, buried soils, wind-blown loess, and human-transported materials. The team was co-coached by Dr. Brian Needelman and Sara Mack from the Department of Environmental Science and Technology.
