Iola High’s growing squadron of fledgling pitmasters tasted sweet success Saturday.
The Iola Underhogs, the school’s second-year barbecue cookoff team, ventured to Wichita Saturday for the Kansas High School BBQ Association state meet.
Iola took 15 competitors — three teams of five — and all 15 qualified for the National BBQ Cookoff June 2-5 in Kansas City, Kan.
“We had a good day,” team coach Doug Kerr said.
Highlighting the day was Iola’s Junior Underhogs team of Ethan Sutterby, Cameron Palmer, Shayden Thyer, Isaiah Geizler and Drake Genoble, who took second overall, four points shy of winning a state championship.
The Lady Underhogs, Mahayla Burris, Alexys Leake, Lyndsay Wilson, Kenleigh Westhoff and Taylor McCoun took third in the all-girls division.
The Iola Underhogs, consisting of Franklin Kerr, Alston Nelson, Rohan Springer, Joe Holding and Simon Mueller, also earned a top-10 finish, thus qualifying for nationals.
The students were rated on their ability to cook up six types of meals: ribs, chicken, brisket, chili and grilled cheese.
Iola’s competitors brought home second- and third-place finishes in brisket, third in both chicken and steak and second overall in grilled cheese.
For their efforts, Iola’s squad brought home an assortment of trophies and banners.
“We’re gonna start a trophy case,” Kerr said.
That said, Kerr also stressed the importance of not relying too much on judges’ opinions.
As an example, Franklin Kerr — Coach Kerr’s son — earned a perfect 100 rating on his ribs from one judge, and a 40 rating from another.
“With our ribs, the kids all did a different flavor, to see which one works with the judges,” Kerr noted. “But we all made the same chili, because we wanted to see what kind of feedback we’d get.”
The chili ratings were “all over the map,” he laughed. “How can they be so far apart? It all depends on the judge.
