Animal sciences students attended the Midwest American Society of Animal Science Meeting March 9-12 in Omaha, Nebraska. At the meeting, the Academic Quadrathlon Team secured their fourth consecutive first-place finish. The team includes seniors Kaylee Spencer (Griggsville, Ill.), Shannon Draper (Sedalia, Colo.), Grace Lloyd (Ellington, Mo.), and Ben Byrd (Troy, Mo.), who participated in the two-day event consisting of lab practical stations for a variety of species, oral presentations to industry professionals and scholars, a written exam, and a quiz bowl.

Two students also earned honors in the research presentation contest. Angela McClaskey, a senior from Kansas City, Mo., won first place for her presentation titled “Successful disruption of CD4 using CRISPR/Cas9 technology in pigs.” Seth Hansen, a senior from Chillicothe, Mo., brought home a third-place finish with his presentation titled “In vitro digestion and conventional hydration assays reveal differential physicochemical properties in soybean meal and hulls.”