2008 Woodie Awards
Judging team member attains perfection
Justin Fruechte makes SDSU history in meats judging contest
Crystal Mohrhauser
Issue date: 11/1/05 Section: Campus
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Although Fruechte, a junior animal science major, doesn't believe in superstitions, he does believe that perfection is a hard accomplishment to achieve.
Yet, he earned a perfect 500 placings score, which sealed his top-individual-overall win at the Eastern.
"We were pretty surprised. It's pretty rare," said Jonathon Spronk, an animal science graduate student who coaches the 2005 team. "This is the first time in SDSU history that it's ever happened."
Fruechte, who grew up with two brothers on a diversified grain and livestock farm, started livestock judging at an early age. His success in that arena drove him to pursue judging on a collegiate level.
"I had to take an introduction class to be eligible to judge in the fall and spring," said Fruechte, who is also active in Alpha Gamma Rho, Block and Bridle, Little International and Ag-Bio Ambassadors.
At the end of their one-year team eligibility, Fruechte and his five teammates will have competed in six intercollegiate meats-judging contests.
"(In a contest), contestants rank four cuts of beef, pork and lamb. They could be wholesale cuts or carcasses." said Spronk, who judged as an undergraduate on the 2002 team. In addition to placings, contestants must write five sets of reasons on why they placed the classes that particular way. They also must grade 15 head of beef carcasses for yield and quality. Participants then judge 10 cuts of specifications and determine if a cut is acceptable or has defects based upon guidelines set by the Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications (IMPS).
Since the end of August, the team has dedicated several hundreds of hours preparing for contests. The team practices three times a week and frequently travels to three area packing plants to see a wide array of specimens. En route to each contest, they also stop at various plants and universities to sharpen their skills immediately prior to competing against several other aggressive universities.