Left to right for the group photo (Team USA-Stars receiving medals for 2nd place overall team): Coach Damon LeMaster (West Virginia University), Jake Scheckel (UW-Platteville), Callie Goodwin (University of Tennessee-Knoxville), India Williams (University of Missouri), Emma Quint (West Virginia University), and Coach Joey Meinert (University of Missouri).
On June 3-7. 2026, the 5th International Soil Judging Contest was held in specially designated competition zones near the cities of Nanjing and Zhenjiang, in China’s eastern Jiangsu province. The event is held every four years in association with the World Congress of Soil Science and was organized by the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) and the Soil Science Society of China. The competition brought together 72 students making up 18 teams from 14 countries. The event included three days of pre-event preparation, training, mock exercises, and official contests, and culminated in a grand awards ceremony. The contest involves contestants describing soils both individually and in 4-person teams using techniques developed by field soil scientists. The descriptions are then used to classify the soils using established scientific classification systems and to make interpretations for specific land uses based on their observations. Scoring in the competition is determined by how well the contestant’s descriptions, classification, and interpretation match those of professional soil scientists.
Eight students made up two teams representing the United States at the competition. Jakob (Jake) Scheckel, junior UW-Platteville Soil and Crop Science major from Dodgeville, WI, earned his spot on Team USA by placing sixth in the USA National Soils competition held in March, 2026 in North Carolina. Students representing Virginia Tech, University of Maryland, University of Missouri, West Virginia University, and University of Tennessee-Knoxville also were on the USA teams.
In the individual competition, seven of the top ten students in the individual competition were from the United States, with Scheckel placing second behind Virginia Tech’s Holden Mrizek. In the team judging portion, Scheckel’s Team USA “Stars” placed third behind German and Russian teams, while Team USA “Stripes” placed seventh. In the overall scoring, Team USA “Stripes” placed first, followed by Team USA “Stars” in second.
Following the contest, Scheckel and several of his teammates attended the World Congress of Soil Science, where scientists present soils-related research from around the world.
Travel to the contest was sponsored by the Agronomic Science Foundation, which provides funding to support the missions of the American Society of Agronomy, the Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America.
