MARSHALL, Minn. - Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted earned 149 total points to take the team crown at the seventh annual Ag Bowl Scholarship Invitational on Friday, Feb. 15. The event, which is hosted on the campus of Southwest Minnesota State University and presented by Ralco, Inc., drew in 654 participants from 31 different FFA Chapters. The students competed for SMSU scholarships in 18 Career Development Events (CDE). New this year was the Blue Jacket Campus Tour so all chapters registered for the campus tour received a Blue Jacket.

The 18 CDEs included, Ag Issues, Ag Sales, Best Informed Greenhand, Conduct of Chapter Meetings, Creed Speaking, Crops, Employment Skills, Extemporaneous Public Speaking, Farm Business Management, Fish & Wildlife, Floriculture, Forestry, Meats Identification, Milk Quality, Parliamentary Procedure, Prepared Public Speaking, Small Animal and Soils.

HLWW has now defended the team title for the fifth straight year. For full results of the individual competition are located here and team results are linked here. 

The SMSU athletic department would like to thank all of the sponsors for making this such a successful event over the years, including the presenting sponsor of Ag Bowl, Ralco, Inc. Other great partners of Ag Bowl include: Action Sports, ADM, Channel Seed, CHS, Golden Harvest, Lyon County Corn & Soybean Growers & Their Checkoffs, Lockwood Motors, Marshall Animal Clinic, Midwest Ag Enterprises, Minnesota Corn Growers Association, Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council, and Titan Machinery. 
 
Ag Bowl was developed in 2007, as a celebration of agriculture in Minnesota. SMSU is proud of the fact that it is located in southwest Minnesota, where agriculture provides the cultural and economic foundation for the region. Over the years, Ag Bowl and its impact has grown significantly, as in 2013 the Ag Bowl Scholarship Invitational was added in the spring to greater expose FFA members to the agriculture academic opportunities available at SMSU. Proceeds from Ag Bowl and the Ag Bowl Scholarship Invitational help fund scholarships and programming to SMSU students and young people who dedicate their careers to business success in agriculture, environmental science and the food industries. For more information on Ag Bowl and/or the Ag Bowl Scholarship Invitational contact Tim Steinbach at Tim.Steinbach@smsu.edu.