Eleven Philomath High School students competed at the Future Natural Resource Leaders state convention April 17-18, returning home with five first-place finishes across individual and team events.
The two-day convention opened Friday at the LaSells Stewart Center on the Oregon State University campus and moved Saturday to the Pacific Northwest Logging Museum in Brooks. FNRL, a statewide career and technical student organization, puts forestry and natural resources students through a mix of hands-on skills events — from arbor climbing and crosscut sawing to choker setting and hose lay — alongside speech, writing and identification contests.
Philomath’s team included Caleb Babcock, Jacoby Babcock, Nate Bennett, Emmylou Cook, Olivia Daggett, Elizabeth Hamlet, Derick Kohn, Trenton Riley, Mason Stevens, Mayson Wallace and Jude Wilson.
Brothers Caleb and Jacoby Babcock took first place in the crosscut event, teaming up on the two-person saw. Caleb Babcock added a first-place finish in arbor climb, while Jude Wilson placed sixth in the same event. Jacoby Babcock also won the choker set competition.
Cook captured first place in prepared speech, and Daggett won the written expression category. Cook added a fourth-place finish on the cable splice team with Stevens, and teamed with Hamlet and Wallace to take fourth in the first aid competition.
In other team results, the hose lay squad of Stevens, Caleb Babcock, Bennett, Riley and Jacoby Babcock placed sixth.
Individually, Bennett took fifth in pole climbing and Riley placed fifth in log rolling.
In the team standings, Philomath finished third.
