Penn State Soil Judging Team places second at 2026 Northeast Regional Contest

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State Soil Judging Team placed second overall at the 2026 Northeast Regional Collegiate Soil Judging Contest, held Sept. 23-25 near Waldorf, Maryland, and hosted by the University of Maryland's Department of Environmental Science and Technology.

Penn State finished behind only the University of Maryland in the overall standings, and its combined individual score was the second highest of any team in the contest. Eighty-three students from 11 colleges and universities across the Northeast competed in the event, with schools entering a combined 17 teams.

Two Penn State students placed among the contest's top 10 individual competitors, who were recognized at the awards ceremony. Jed Dreher, of Pittsburgh, a junior majoring in forest ecosystem management, finished fourth overall, and John Bicksler, of Lewisburg, West Virginia, a sophomore majoring in plant sciences, finished sixth. Ava Sylvester, of Fillmore, New York, a junior majoring in plant sciences, placed 14th.

Rounding out Penn State’s six-member squad were Megan Heineman of Philadelphia, a senior majoring in environmental resource management; Sydney Hamer of Bradford, a junior majoring in wildlife and fisheries science; and Brenna Fitzpatrick, of Buffalo, New York, a senior majoring in plant sciences.

Soil judging contests test students’ ability to describe and interpret soils in the field. Working in excavated pits, competitors assess soil layers, texture, color, structure and features; classify soils using soil taxonomy; and evaluate landscape position, parent material, drainage and suitability for land uses such as home sites, roads, septic systems and prime farmland.

Each student judged three soil pits individually, and teams judged two additional pits as a group. This year's contest was set on the Mid-Atlantic Inner Coastal Plain of southern Maryland, where students spent two practice days studying soils formed in coastal plain sediments and shaped by erosion and centuries of agricultural use.

The team was coached by Patrick Drohan, professor of pedology in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, with assistance from Lauren Turner, a master’s degree student studying soils.

"The team really put in a big effort this year, got along great and had a lot of fun,” said Drohan. ‘The practice dedication ahead of the contest really helped. What a super example of experiential learning in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences."

Team members described the competition as a formative, hands-on learning experience.

"Soil judging, as always, is a fantastic experience with a great sense of camaraderie, teamwork and professional development," Dreher said. "The hands-on, experiential learning is one of the most valuable experiences I've had at Penn State so far. By the end of the competition, I felt I came away with a deeper understanding of the landscape than I ever could in a classroom environment."

Bicksler said he couldn’t believe the amount he learned in three days.

“Not just about soil but also about myself," he said. “Soil judging is one of the hands-on experiences you can get at Penn State, and by far the best."

Sylvester called the competition an amazing experience.

"The amount I learned on the soil judging trip exceeds the amount I could learn in any classroom,” she said. “Outside of learning a lot about soils, I also got to meet professionals already working in the field."

Collegiate soil judging in the United States is organized into seven regions, with regional contests serving as qualifiers for the annual national contest. With its second-place finish, Penn State qualifies for the 2027 National Collegiate Soil Judging Contest in Ft. Collings, Colorado, which will be hosted by Colorado State University in mid-April.

The contest was conducted under the auspices of the Soil Science Society of America and the American Society of Agronomy, with support from sponsors including the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Mid-Atlantic Association of Professional Soil Scientists and the Charles County Soil Conservation District.