Darian Tupuola has always been interested in 4-H, but it wasn’t until the end of her high school career that she decided to give it a shot.

The 17 year-old Philo High School senior didn’t have the space for a coop at her own home, so her boyfriend let her share his.

The couple created a ladder system to build up the chickens’ strength, and that’s what Tupuola partially credits for her first place finish in the Grade-A class showing at the Muskingum County Fair.

Tupoula said normally judges look for a heart-shaped breast on chickens, but her chickens looked a little different.

“He (a judge) came up to mine and said ‘yours is so different,’ because mine was completely rectangle, and that’s all muscle and he’s never really seen,” Tupuola said.

That comment gave her hope that she might have a shot at winning.

Even knowing her chances, Tupuola was completely shocked when the judges announced her chickens, Pox and Hei Hei, took first place.

Tupuola said she was shaking too much to even take a picture of her first blue ribbon at the fair.

Once Tupuola’s nerves settled, she returned to caring for her prized chickens, in preparation for the next contest, with a little more confidence and even more bragging rights over her boyfriend.