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The WIU Professional Agriculture Students team earned multiple high placements at this year's Fall 2025 PAS Conference.
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WIU Ag Students Show Their Expertise at PAS Conference

November 20, 2025

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MACOMB, IL - - Members of the Western Illinois University Professional Agriculture Students (PAS) earned seven awards at the Fall 2025 PAS Conference Nov. 13.

The group brought home two first-place awards for its outstanding crops team, highlighted by senior Laila Beck (Arenzville, IL) winning the individual crown. Beck teamed with senior Adam Vail (Tennessee, IL) and junior Jayson Kuzniar (Canton, IL) to take first place in the team crops event. The crops team is coached by soil science professor Joel Gruver.

"I think it's rewarding being able to take the information that we receive and process in the field and classroom, and then use that to test our skills against other individuals via the competition," Beck said. "The whole process helps me recognize any weaknesses myself, or the team, has when it comes to agronomy, and generates a path we can follow to close those knowledge gaps. The only thing I'm not looking forward to for nationals in the multi-month wait until the team gets to compete again."

Leathernecks earned two individual second place finishes and two individual third place finishes, while the Equine team took second place.

The complete list of awards for WIU are:


  • Laila Beck: first place, Crops Specialist - Individual

  • Amanda Niemann (junior, Litchfield, IL): second place, Agriculture Extension - Individual

  • Adam Vail: second place, Career Planning: Agriculture Education - Individual

  • Elizabeth Cable (Brownstown, IL): third place, Equine - Individual

  • Jayson Kuzniar: third place, Crops Specialist - Individual

  • Crops Team: Beck, Kuzniar, Vail - first place

  • Equine Team: Olivia Brodbeck (freshman, Batchtown, IL), Cable, Tea Thomas (senior, Cambridge, IL) - second place


"It's so relieving to see our hard work pay off because throughout the day, and hearing my name called for third place and my team for second was absolutely heartwarming," Cable said. "I am so proud of both of my teammates and the other members of PAS who competed and can't wait to see what the future has in store for them!"

PAS is a student-led organization that allows students to build and sharpen their skills so they are ready for the workplace. Through competitive style learning and real-life application, members are educated to be skilled professionals and prepared to work in all areas of the agriculture industry.

"While I accomplished my goal in qualifying for the National level in two events, my most memorable part of the conference was building connections with the other ten individuals from WIU and connecting with the other 230 students from different colleges across Illinois," Vail said. "We have a lot of great memories to share from the conference that would take up pages worth of moments."

These individuals have qualified to compete at Nationals which will be held on March 9-12, 2026 in Branson, MO.

To learn more about the School of Agriculture, visit wiu.edu/ag.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
Office of University Communications & Marketing