Mupu 4-H Wins Big at County Competition

Members of the Mupu 4-H Swine Project recently competed at the 2nd annual Super Saturday event.  They dazzled the crowd with their depth of knowledge and their ability to correctly answer wide ranging questions about all aspects of swine production.  The competition was held at the Ventura County Fairgrounds, and was open to all county 4-H’ers.

Eight teams from local 4-H groups competed in the second annual Swine Bowl competition.  The competition was double elimination, and was judged by Roger Clark of Bakersfield.  As the announcer asked the questions, team members had to hear enough of the question to answer it, but be faster than the other team on the buzzer.  Mupu fielded two teams, Mupu 1 and Mupu A.  Mupu team 1 members were Captain Emilee Inez, Joey Moreno, Joseph Olivo, and Carter Woodruff.  The Mupu A team members were Captain Jorge Lopez, Roberto Lopez, Dylan Byrum, and Allison Martinez.   The teams were both top notch, neither team was a “B” team.  As the event progressed, the two Mupu teams dominated the matches.  When the teams had been narrowed down to the top two, the final round was Mupu 1 versus Mupu A.  After an intense competition, time was called.  Who was the winner?  The score was tied! It all depended on the tie breaker question, who would be the first to hear enough to buzz in and take the top prize?  Emilee Inez, team captain for Mupu 1, hit the buzzer first, and knew the correct answer.  “The competition was a real nail biter,” said Emilee.  Mupu 1 took the medals and blue ribbons.  Mupu A was awarded 2nd place red ribbons.  Team member Joey Moreno commented, “The competition was close, exciting, and fun.  I can’t wait to do it again next year.”  According to Mupu A team captain Jorge Lopez, “The Swine Bowl is really a lot of fun, everyone should try it.”

 After the excitement of the Swine Bowl, four Mupu 4-H members from the cooking project stayed to competed in the Iron Chef competition.  The secret ingredients were chicken, pudding, and lemons, and each team had exactly one hour to create their meal.  Team captain Roberto Lopez, Jorge Lopez, Joey Moreno, and Dylan Byrum made chicken fajita tacos with fresh pico de gallo salsa, followed by pudding with fruit for dessert.  Team captain Roberto Lopez noted, “We had some problems.  One of the tacos almost exploded when we presented it to the judge.”  The only girl on the team, Joey Moreno, added, “Figuring out what to do was hard, but we were a team and ended up making everything work out.”  Although the judges were very impressed with their pico de gallo salsa, the Mupu team was not one of the top three teams.