Market Swine show crowns back-to-back Grand Champion
By Frank Cardenas, South Texas Community News
At the Kleberg-Kenedy County Junior Livestock Show, 11-year-old Briley Hubert walked away with a Grand Champion banner in market swine, marking her second straight championship at the event.
Hubert, a representative of Country Wranglers 4-H this year, entered the KKJLS with the same hope as she did last year, “to try my best to win.”
However, after winning last year, she said she felt different when she entered the pen in 2021.
“I was really nervous this year and before I went in like my first time last year, I was really nervous,” Hubert said. “But I told myself that I wasn't as nervous as last year, so I was like ‘I got this.’”
When her name was called for the second time in as many years, Hubert said she was shocked and felt like “I was going to pass out.”
“All the nights staying up past midnight were well worth it,” she said of her win.
On top of her Grand Champion win, she also won Reserve Intermediate Showmanship Champion.
Reserve Champion for market swine was Cade Baker, a representative of Wild Horse Desert 4-H Club.
Baker took home the banner in his first time participating in the event after aging out of Peewee shows, and he said he was so excited to win his award.
“It feels great,” Baker said about winning his award. He said it was a lot of work trying to prepare his pig, ‘Cookie,’ for the show. His favorite thing was walking and being able to feed her to prepare her for the show.
His mother, Ashley, said Cade had performed well in peewee shows in the past, but they knew this year would be “a totally different ballgame.”
With the pandemic as one of the major obstacles in their way, Ashley said she couldn’t be more proud of Cade’s accomplishment this year.
“He did an exceptional job and that’s all we can ever ask of him is to go out there and give it his all,” she said. “Today, that proved to work for him.”
Cade said he can’t wait to participate in the show next year, and is hoping to do even better than this year.
On top of his reserve champion win, Cade also earned Junior Showmanship Champion.
For more on the KKJLS, continue to look back at southtexascommunitynews.com.