Ninth Best of the West competition results announced

Group of high school students posing
Best of the West overall first place winners, Alliance High School, pose for a group photo with Professor Gary Dusek, far left, and Dean of the School of Business, Mathematics, and Science Shaunda French-Collins, far right, in the Student Center Ballroom. (Photo by Sydney Brown/Chadron State College)

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CHADRON – One-hundred sixty-one students from Nebraska high schools participated in the Ninth Annual Best of the West competition last Wednesday at Chadron State College. According to Dr. Gary Dusk, Business Academy Professor, Department Chair and event organizer, students from Alliance, Hemingford, Chadron, Hay Springs, Scottsbluff, Sidney, Valentine, and Mitchell high schools registered for the contest.

The event, co-sponsored by CSC and the Nebraska Council of Economic Education, follows Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) rules, and helps prepare contestants for the FBLA State Leadership Conference in Kearney, Nebraska, April 16-18.

With three individual winners, Alliance High School finished in first place as a team. Sidney was second and Chadron was third.

Tanner Long, a business and technology teacher and FBLA sponsor at Mitchell High School, said the Best of the West Competition was a great experience for the students.

“This was Mitchell’s first time attending the competition,” he said. “It offered a great opportunity for students to network with their peers interested in business and explore a nice college campus.”

Dusek said this year’s competition was great and he anticipates that the event next year will feature more students.

“We will add impromptu writing and impromptu speaking. We’re going to hopefully have scholarships tagged to it, so it’s going to be a big deal and hopefully more than 200 students,” Dusek said.

Photos of the winning contestants are posted in CSC’s public, online gallery.

Overall Team Winners

1, Alliance, 76 points

2, Sidney, 60 points

3, Chadron, 48 points

Individual Placings

Accounting

1, Garrett Myers, Alliance

2, Isaac Utecht, Valentine

3, Leighton Olson, Valentine

4, Cody Penaluna, Hemingford

5, Mason Frye, Chadron

Business Calculations

1, Garrett Myers, Alliance

2, Barrett Wiegand, Sidney

3, Isaac Utecht, Valentine

4, Ryan Ragsdale, Hemingford

5, Audree Carlson, Mitchell

Business Communications

1, Dan Grunig, Sidney

2, Kinzie Bridge, Alliance

-Taylor Neugebauer

Category: Campus News