Weeds Team

The Weed Team competes in annual collegiate weed contests that test students' knowledge of herbicide symptomology, weed identification, sprayer calibration, and field diagnosis of plant problems.

Weed Contest Results

2022

NEWSS Contest - Plattsville, Ontario, Canada

• 1st place graduate team:  Eli Russell, John Peppers, Matthew Spoth
• 1st place graduate individual: Eli Russell
• 2nd place graduate individual: Matthew Spoth
• 1st place written calibration: Eli Russell
• 1st place herbicide identification: Vipin Kumar
• 1st place weed identification: Eli Russell
• 1st place team calibration: Eli Russell, John Peppers, Matthew Spoth

SWSS Contest - Memphis, TN

• 2nd place graduate team: Eli Russell, Matthew Spoth, John Peppers, and Daewon Koo
• 2nd place graduate individual: Eli Russell
• 4th place graduate individual: Matthew Spoth
• 5th place graduate individual: John Peppers
• 1st place weed identification: Eli Russell
  

2019

North American awards:

• 1st place graduate team: John Brewer, Shawn Beam, Eric Scruggs, Wykle Greene
• 1st place graduate individual: Eric Scruggs
• 1st place graduate weed identification: John Brewer
• 1st place graduate herbicide identification: Eric Scruggs

Northeastern Region

• 1st place graduate team: John Brewer, Shawn Beam, Eric Scruggs, and Wykle Greene
• 3rd place graduate team: Jordan Craft, Gourav Sharma, Caleb Henderson, and Spencer Michael
• 1st place graduate individual: Eric Scruggs
• 2nd place graduate individual: Shawn Beam
• 3rd place graduate individual: John Brewer

2018

NEWSS (9 teams) - BASF, Pine Level, NC

• 1, 3 grad team
• Shawn Beam, 1st
• Lucas Rector, 2nd
• Jordan Craft, 3rd
• High score in written exam (Beam)
• High score in team calibration (team 1)
• High score in herbicide ID (Craft)
• High score in weed ID (Beam)

SWSS - Ag Center, Memphis, TN

• 2nd place team (behind Arkansas, again)
• 2, 7, 9, 10 place individuals
• tied for individual symptomology

2017

NEWSS (12 teams) ACDS, North Rose, NY

• 1, 4, 6, 8 teams
• John Brewer 1st
• Shawn Beam 3rd

SWSS - Syngenta @ Vero Beach, FL

• First place!
• John Brewer 1, Shawn Beam 4, Cam Shelton 8

2016

NEWSS (we hosted)

SWSS - Monsanto in Scott, MS

• 2nd place team
• Sandeep Rana 3rd overall, John Brewer 4th, Shawn Beam 8th

2015

NEWSS - Weed Olympics at Ohio State

• First place team
• John Brewer 1st in NEWSS
• John Brewer 2nd nationally

2014 

NEWSS - Penn State

• First team
• John Brewer 1st
• Dan Tekiela 2nd

SWSS -  Agricenter International in Memphis, TN 

• 2nd place team
• Sandeep Rana 3rd, John Brewer 8th

2013 

NEWSS held jointly with North Central. We did not compete

SWSS -  BASF Holy Springs, NC

• 2nd Team
• Michael Cox 9th

2012

NEWSS - Rutgers

• first

SWSS -  Arkansas

• 1st team
• Angela Post 2nd, Kurt Vollmer 9th, Michael Cox 10th

2011

NEWSS - Weed Olympics at UT

• 3rd place graduate
• 2nd place undergraduate
• Dan Tekiela came in first nationally as an undergrad
• Angela Post 2nd in NEWSS

How to Join

To join contact Dr. Michael Flessner flessner@vt.edu, Jacob Barney jnbarney@vt.edu or Shawn Askew saskew@vt.edu