Working winner

Lilly Johnson only shows beef.

She had never been in the supreme showmanship competition before.

Several days of work eliminated those possible disadvantages.

Johnson was solid throughout the competition on Thursday as she won the 4-H large animal supreme showmanship trophy at the Jay County Fair.

“I was kind of shocked,” said Johnson, who advanced to the competition representing the beef barn for the first time. “We’re all putting in all this work and it’s just like, wow. … It was hard work. Everyone did well.”

“It was really hard out there, but I was blessed with a lot of animals that listened well and performed well in the ring,” she added.

She became the second consecutive eight-year 4-H member to win the trophy, following Eli Dirksen last year.

The supreme showmanship competition pits the advanced showmanship winners from each species against each other. They must show each of the species except the one from which they advanced. The animals to be shown are distributed via a blind draw.

With no experience with any species other than beef, Johnson spent the week working to familiarize herself.

“It was a lot of work,” she said. “Since I (advanced) on Sunday, it’s been all week of stressing out and losing hair, trying to learn these things about every other breed. …

“I’m really thankful for all the friends I have in 4-H that’ll help me with that.”

Even with that work, sheep proved to be a challenge. There were a couple in the ring with the supreme showmanship contenders — Levi Willman (dairy goat), Ella Stockton (meat goat), Elise Mercer (dairy), Tyler Armstrong (swine), Molly Muhlenkamp (dairy beef), Elizabeth Link (sheep) and Cash Hollowell (horse) — that seems more interested in escaping that in showing off for a judge.

Johnson had one of those.

“I was drenched in sweat,” she said. “She just put up a big fight.

“They say, ‘Stay calm, cool and collected,’ but it’s kind of crazy when you have a sheep jumping on you.”

Fortunately, Johnson got a bit of a break from her dairy goat to close the competition.

“She was real nice,” she said. “She just walked around with me. And she set her feet up real nice.”

Johnson will be a junior when classes start up in a month at Jay County Junior-Senior High School. She has served as president of the Class of 2026, is involved in FFA, plays for the Patriot girls tennis team and performs in show choir.

While she still has a couple of years before college, she said she would like to work with kids either in the medical field or in education.

“I love ’em,” Johnson said. “I think molding a mind young will create better minds when they’re older.”