Menu
Round Robin win a family affair for Shuee
Overcome with emotion after winning the Supreme Showmanship competition Thursday evening, Brynne Shuee didn’t hang around the show ring very long.
Instead, she waited long enough to get her trophy, then went running through the crowd of the Indoor Arena at the Putnam County Fairgrounds until she found her mom Jamie Sibbitt and the two embraced for a few moments in a tearful hug.
It was a strange sight to see back in the show ring, as the three-foot Round Robin trophy, presented as always by the Tom Hendricks family, stood by itself, its new owner with more important business elsewhere.
While it might seem odd for Shuee, a nine-year 4-H’er who came tantalizingly close to winning the last two years, to let the trophy out of her sight, it all made perfect sense in her mind.
“This is my third year in (Supreme Showmanship) and it’s been a goal since I was really young,” Shuee said. “My mom and my family really helped me through this and got me in more barns this year.
“So it’s really more important to be with my family than to be with my trophy.”
Shuee stayed true to that philosophy even after she returned to the show ring and her trophy, posing for pictures with her mom, with dad Brent Shuee and with dozens of other family members and friends, all seemingly overjoyed for Shuee after near misses in her first two Round Robin competitions.
There was 2015 when she lost to champion Nolan Ensor by a single point.
Then last year the top three competitors, Shuee, Jessica Hays and Corbin Judy, all actually tied, with Hays taking the title based on her score on the written test.
While scores were not publicly released on Thursday evening, Shuee apparently left no doubt, finishing near the top in almost every category — beef, dairy, goat, horse, sheep and swine.
Shuee believes it was improvement in dairy that really keyed her victory this year.
“The last two years I placed fifth in dairy and that’s what killed me,” Shuee said. “This year I was second in dairy.”
Shuee represented swine as the Champion Senior Showman from that barn, but she also has shown sheep in 4-H competition as well as beef cattle with her family in open shows.
Capturing the reserve champion’s platter, presented by the Phillip Fry family, was Lane Parent from the sheep barn.
It was the first time in the Round Robin for the ninth-year 4-H’er, but he says he learned a lot in the 24 hours since he won the sheep competition and he hopes to be back and better for his final go-round in 2018.
“It was exciting. I’m going to try (to make it back),” Parent said. “I’m going to work on it. That’s the plan.”
The six competitors in Supreme Showmanship advance to the Round Robin by winning Senior Showmanship in their individual barns, thus earning the privilege to show all six species and compete for the title.
Other representatives on Thursday were Allison Bayless of goats, Whitney Boswell of horse and pony, Austin Wright of dairy and A.J. Hornback of beef.
For some it was the last crack at that oversized trophy, while others have more chances, provided they make it out of the individual shows.
And while Shuee may have been more concerned with family than the spoils of victory in the moments after the competition, she still has plans for that coveted prize. An early graduate from North Putnam in May, Shuee is bound for Black Hawk College East in Kewanee, Ill., and the trophy will be right there with her.
“My two roommates and I will have a place there and the trophy will be in my bedroom,” Shuee said with a smile.
At Black Hawk East, she plans to study ag business as well as judge livestock.