Karly Spear named Champion Showman after numerous top scores

Karly Spear, 15, of Newton, remembered how nervous she felt competing in the Brice Leonard Supreme Showmanship Contest at the Jasper County Fair for the very first time. She told herself to have fun and just enjoy the experience along with her fellow competitors, no matter the outcome.

But that was last year.

Spear found herself competing in the pavilion again this year. She was confident and sought out the assistance from fellow 4-H’ers on how to present livestock outside her expertise. And it paid off. Not only was she named Champion Showman, she earned top-two finishes in five of the six species shows.

In addition to her runner-up finishes for the horse and dairy categories, Spear secured first place for beef and sheep and tied for first place in goat alongside Claire Kucera. She was close to securing a top-two finish for the swine show, but was inched out by this year’s Reserve Champion Showman, Grace Guy.

Looking back on the contest, Spear told Newton News she will be taking with her the experience and knowledge she gained from showing the different animals.

“In the past two years, I’ve had some animals that maybe weren’t perfectly behaved, so it’s just learning to keep my composure and work hard at it,” Spear said, acknowledging that trying to keep animals like pigs in line for the judges can be difficult. “If you get a bad one it can be kind of hard getting them to go.”

Guy, 17, of Newton, had also previously competed in the contest. Like Spear, she felt much more prepared this time around than she did a few years ago.

“Last time, I came in dead last,” Guy said. “It was humbling to say the least. I think this time I knew what I was doing. I had a little bit more experience under my belt. I kinda knew what to expect, and I think my confidence level has gone up in that big span of three years just from showing my species. That’s been great.”

Her placement in this year’s contest shows just how much Guy has progressed and improved. Contributing to her Reserve Champion win were her three, top-two placements in swine, beef and sheep. Guy felt pretty happy with that turnout, especially considering she only shows dairy cattle.

“So to sit there and go, ‘OK, I got second behind the person who won that this week’ — it was pretty cool,” Guy said.

Both champions agree they put more work into this year’s contest after competing in it previously.

“My dad always says, ‘You get what you put into it.’ And I think this year I really took that to heart and I put a lot into it,” Guy said. “I worked with as many kids as I could and I tried to stack as much experience as I could right in there. Thank you to everybody who put it on. This was great.”