Jon Mark Beilue: Big mark on meat science map

Quiz Bowl national title adds to growing national reputation

In this the year of the pandemic, nothing is normal – not even competing for and winning a national championship.

Dr. Loni Lucherk, an assistant professor of Animal Sciences at West Texas A&M University, spent hours for nearly two months with two meat science quiz teams in preparation for the Meat Science Quiz Bowl in early August. The national competition was supposed to be in Orlando, Fla. Instead, like almost every scheduled public event in this country, it was a virtual Zoom competition.

So here was Lucherk in early August, riding shotgun in husband Kody’s truck trying to follow a tense match with the University of Florida on her laptop while praying her phone hotspot had enough service.

In a normal year, she could have been in the shadow of Disney World with the eight members of the two teams. Instead, she was somewhere along I-40 returning from a friend’s wedding in Stillwater, Okla.

The match went to a second round of three-question tiebreakers before the WT Maroon team edged the Gators on a correct answer by Jared Young that sent them into the championship match. Somehow fitting this year that Young answered the winning question in Minnesota where he is preparing to begin vet school.

“It was nerve-wracking,” Lucherk said. “That was intense.”

All in a weekend’s work for a burgeoning meat sciences department that’s carving out a national reputation for its undergraduate program among more established universities.

“This really puts WT on the map in terms of meat science activities for undergraduate students,” said Lucherk, who joined the WT faculty in January. “We’ve already set ourselves apart in terms of research in meat science, but what I’m focusing on as a new faculty member here is our undergrad activities like the meat science quiz bowl and meat judging.

“We want to get the word out in our undergraduate program that we’re here and we’re competing with every other university in the nation – and we’re winning. What better place to come get an education than right here in the middle of the meat industry in Texas?”

There were 21 teams from 13 universities competing in the 2020 Quiz Bowl, which has been hosted by the American Meat Science Association since 2002. The event is held in conjunction with the International Congress of Meat Science and Technology and Reciprocal Meat Conference.

The format was a little bit “Jeopardy!” and a little bit “Family Feud.” There were 20 questions asked in each round. The first eight questions pitted one team member against an opposing team member. The last 12 questions any team member could buzz in.

“What the head-to-head does is make sure every student has a deep knowledge of all of meat science,” Lucherk said. “Students have to learn about fresh meats, processed meat, microbiology, retail – just have a wide background in the meat sciences and not just one specific area.”

A moderator asks a question. A competitor can buzz at any time to answer, which stops the question. If the answer is incorrect, the entire question is asked, and the other team has five seconds for its answer. A correct answer is worth 1 point. An incorrect answer is a 1-point deduction.

Typical questions:

What are the four phases of the bacterial growth curve?

What is the scientific name of the major muscle in a beef ribeye steak?

Name two of the 10 requirements for Certified Angus Beef.

How many ounces in the famous 72-ounce steak at the Big Texan? (Actually, that’s not one.)

WT had a Maroon and White team entered in the double-elimination tournament. While the White team advanced to the winners bracket quarterfinals before losing, and then was eliminated in the losers bracket, the Maroon performed the ol’ survive and advance technique.

They defeated Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech Red teams before the pivotal match with Florida. It was the equivalent of a double-overtime win in basketball which sent Maroon into the finals against the same A&M it had defeated previously.

By the time the championship round rolled around, Lucherk had made it back to Canyon. The Maroon team – graduate student Becca Grimes of Gilmer, Zach McDonough, a junior from Plainview, Jake Gillespie, a junior from Joshua, and Young, a May graduate from Wylie – faced Big Brother, A&M, in the finals, shown live on AMSA’s Facebook page.

“The rounds progressively get harder,” said Grimes, who will be a teaching assistant and working on her master’s at WT. “The final round is extremely hard. Both teams didn’t post much because the questions were so hard and you were worried about a deduction. We just tried to grab what we knew we could and get enough points to win.”

A&M won the first round, 3 to -1. Since it was double elimination and Maroon’s first loss, the two faced off again in a winner-take-all. WT prevailed, 4 to -1. Competition rules required team members to be in separate rooms. With Young in Minnesota, the others were separated within the Agricultural Sciences Complex.

When it became official, those three and Lucherk celebrated in the atrium. Young did so in is own way a little more than 1,000 miles away. It wasn’t like celebrating at the conference and later at Disney World, but it’s still a first-ever national championship.

“This is extremely significant,” Lucherk said. “It’s very difficult to win a national championship. A lot of time and effort and studying goes into winning one of these. Even the most knowledgeable teams don’t always win it. You have to get the right questions, make sure you don’t get ‘buzzer-happy,’ and there’s just a lot of pressure throughout.”

This is just the latest in a long list of national championships Lucherk has had a hand in. As a student at Tech, she was part of five champion or reserve championship teams within the undergraduate meat sciences competitions. She also helped coach five other Tech teams to national or reserve titles.

This was a major milestone for WT.

“There are schools in the meat science community that dominate these types of contests like Tech, A&M and Colorado State,” Grimes said. “When I was in this competition two years ago, we didn’t make it past the first round. WT was one of those schools there was nothing to worry about – ‘it’s just WT, no big deal’ – so this is really special.”

Do you know of a student, faculty member, project, an alumnus or any other story idea for “WT: The Heart and Soul of the Texas Panhandle?” If so, email Jon Mark Beilue at jbeilue@wtamu.edu.