Morales, Janessa Dwyer, and Luis Varela
It was a 4-team end for the win at the Southwestern Meats Contest for the 2024 GCCC Meat Judging Team, hosted by Columbia Packing Company at Ennis, TX, on Jan. 28.
The team placed 4th overall, ranking 2nd in Placings (only 2 points from a school record) and Total Beef, 3rd in Beef Grading and Beef Judging, and 4th in Pork Judging, Lamb Judging and Questions.
Aaron Morales led the way for the Buster Meats Team, having a record day. He placed 2nd overall while ranking 1st in Pork Judging and Placings. He is the first person to score a perfect
300 out of 300 in Pork Judging in GCCC History (1987-present). Aaron also tied a record from 2003, scoring a perfect score in Placings (500 out of 500 points) with two people.
Additionally, Aaron was 2nd in Questions, 3rd in Beef Judging, and 3rd in Lamb Judging.
Other team members included Baylee Hutcheson who placed 13th, Luis Varela who placed 14th and Peyton Kneebone who placed 18th overall.
“In all of our contests, the coaches have to pick the four scores that count towards our total
team score before the contest. It is not like other competitions where if someone is having a
bad day, they can be substituted in and out of competition. So, our four highest scores didn’t
count. These are what we call the Alternates,” said Dr. Clint Alexander, GCCC Meat Judging
Team Coach. “Our alternates included Janessa Dwyer, 1st high Alternate Overall, and Meara Bergstrom, 3rd high alternate overall. If we had our top 4 scores on the team, it would have moved us only to 3rd overall.”
