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PROVO — The Brigham Young University Cougars have claimed their fifth National Collegiate Landscaping Competition in six years.
And while most Utahns won't see any landscape land installation competitions on TV, the team is celebrating.
"Even if people don't understand what it is, it's certainly on our minds. It's like winning the Olympics," said Phil Allen, professor of the planting landscape systems major at BYU.
This 60-member BYU buddying dynasty has plucked, pruned and planted its way to its fifth national title in six years.
"It's a big accomplishment. It's not just like we put a lot of time and effort and preparation into this competition every year," said Tyler Stewart, who won for his paving installation.
Fifty other schools came to Provo for the four-day competition, which was held March 13-16. Thirty different events were held, including turf and weed identification, exterior landscape design, and plant problem diagnosis.
Stewart said his paving event had many spectators, and he was tasked with replicating a specific paver pad in an hour and 50 minutes.
"My event is really fun. There is like probably 40 people just cheering for me and my teammate and just, it's really encouraging," he said.
And it's not just a cool trophy students got. They also won prize and scholarship money totaling $30,000. Allen said many students will go on to get unique and profitable landscaping jobs.
"Even more emotional than winning was seeing over 50 past students who are highly successful in the profession of landscape contracting come back and be involved with the event," Allen said.
He said winning is also what makes the major so sought after.
"BYU has a great product of students that can design, create, install and manage the world's most beautiful man-made landscapes," Allen said.
About 15 students finished Top 3 in their individual events and nine students won first place. BYU outscored the second-place team by more than 358 points across the 30 individual events, which broke the 5,000-point total for the first time in the 48-year history of the tournament, a release from BYU said.
Faculty coach Greg Jolley said last year, BYU lost by 11 points, and so the team was especially motivated to win.
"This was the most dominant performance ever by a BYU team," Jolley said.
Contributing: Cassidy Wixom
