The best of the best compete

After three days of events filled with excitement and competition for area 4-H children, Thursday morning it all came to a climax with the annual Supreme Showmanship competition.

Six members of 4-H who were named grand champions in various categories throughout the week displayed their showmanship skills with horses, steers, sheep and swine.

North Dakota State University Williams County Extension agent Warren Froelich said this event culminates a week of events for which the 4-H youth spent a long time preparing. He said the supreme showmanship competition gives the youth who bred the top livestock in the various categories to show their overall skills.

"That's what showmanship is all about. Being able to show your animal to people so you can sell it is important," said Froelich.

Froelich said the supreme showmanship competition has been around for 29 years at the fair and has developed into a fairly prestigious event in 4-H circles. This is due to the amount of effort put into raising good animals.

Froelich also said the winner receives a special Montana Silversmiths belt buckle to signify their accomplishments.

"We have a really exceptional and uniform quality in animals here this week. These young 4-H members certainly have proven themselves in their ability to show their animals," said Froelich.

There was much excitement among the six members who were in the supreme showmanship competition. Williston's Kirsti Kueffler, 14, was grand champion in the steer showmanship at Tuesday's livestock judging competition in the senior division.

Kueffler has been a 4-H member for four years and is very happy with the progress she made and was excited to have made it to the final competition. Overall, she was pretty happy with her performance.

"I did OK. I could've done a little bit better on some things, though," said Kueffler.

Williston's Connor Lynch, 12, also was excited after earning a grand champion in steer showmanship in the junior division at Tuesday's competition. He's been a 4-H member for two years and thought it was great to get so far in the competition, especially in his second year.

"I thought I did pretty good. I'm excited and nervous," said Lynch, smiling.

After the champion was to be announced, all members were to have an awards ceremony and a pizza party as a conclusion of the week's events.