A West Jessamine High graduate has won a national championship.

Lauren Dixon, now sophomore at the University of Kentucky, won the North American International Livestock Exposition in Louisville, along with her team of three other 18-and-under Livestock Skillathon members. 

Dixon moved from Lexington to Jessamine County when she was a Junior in high school.

“My parents wanted me to have land to raise my sheep and goats,” Dixon said. 

Now, Dixon is a Biotech major and wants to be a large animal vet after graduating from UK.

“I was approached about being on the skillathon team since I was still in the age group,” Dixon said. “The studying for nationals and the pre-tests we’ve done were harder than any college course I have taken.”

In the Livestock Skillathon, Dixon and her team competed to demonstrate their ability to identify, judge and evaluate several areas related to the production and management of beef cattle, goats, sheep and swine. 

The team is through Kentucky 4-H and it is based out of Christian County. They placed first in both evaluation and quality assurance, and fourth in identification. 

“I really couldn’t have done it without my great agriculture teachers from West Jessamine,” Dixon said.