The Ag Olympics were held last Friday night, August 4, as the Niobrara County Fair began winding down.  Following a barbeque sponsored by the NEA, the Ag Olympics were held in the fairground arena; five age-divisions comprised the event with a total of seventeen teams competing all-together. Each team was comprised of four contenders and while the obstacle was ran in groups of two teams at a time; the teams were individually timed to determine a winner for each division. Before each division competed, a Calcutta was held to auction off each team.
Ag Olympics came to the Niobrara County Fair a few years ago and have since offered a friendly competition amongst community members as they race through an obstacle course. This year’s obstacle course started off with a three-legged race, which moved to a giant four-person-sack-race for the older divisions, followed by hurdling logs, and then the culvert draw. At the culvert draw, each team member had to crawl through individually then, once on the other side, had to lie full-length in the mud pit using all the team members to create a moving-human-bridge to the end of the mud pit. Once out of the mud pit, teams flocked to the ‘pig races’ where a fly swatter and pink ball—the pig—were coerced over small jumps to the ‘holy buckets’ obstacle. ‘Holy buckets’, as it self-implies, was a race for each team member to take a hole-infested bucket, run to the trough, fill it with water, and try to make it back to the plastic tub with as much water as possible. Once the ‘holy bucket’ water was dumped into the plastic tub, the next team member could take the bucket and run for the trough. A designated fill line was placed on each plastic tub. Finally, the egg crack marked the end of the obstacle course where each member of the team had to crack an egg over their head as they crossed the finish line; the drop of the red flag by the timing official marked the end of their race.
Seventeen teams competed, and five walked out with first place bragging rights. They were:
Pee Wee Division:
Barbies and Bull Riders: Wyatt Jensen, Tavie Miller, Dryce Brott, and Wyncee Brott.

Junior Division:
Take Down Terminators: Ridge Kupke, Nathan Fish, Will Stewart, and Brant Stewart.
Intermediate Division:
Beauty and the Beasts: Lainie Bauersachs, Kaden Bauersachs, Colten Coffman, and Walker Kupke.
Senior Division:
Smurfalicious: Taylor Gaukel, Kylie Strauch, Sadie Sturman, and Courtney Rowley.
Adult Division:
Niobrara River Arena: Cole Mellot, Cuinton White, Remington Southwick, and Dylan Miller.