It’s safe to say BYU has achieved dynasty status.
Such success hasn’t come on the field, but rather on greens of a different kind. The school’s landscaping team captured top honors at this past week’s National Collegiate Landscape Competition, marking BYU’s fifth such championship in the past six years.
BYU’s first place squad finished more than 350 points ahead of the next closest competitor, having out-landscaped 50 other universities.
“We lost last year by 11 points … 11 points! So the team was motivated to win it this year,” BYU faculty coach Greg Jolley told BYU University Communications. “This was the most dominant performance ever by a BYU team.”
According to BYU’s article, the event’s 30 individual challenges “ranged from irrigation troubleshooting to turf and weed identification to compact excavator operation and exterior landscape design.”
The Cougars even enjoyed a home field advantage, as the competition was held on campus in Provo, but it was the team’s spiritual foundation that proved most valuable. BYU’s nightly team meetings during the event were always followed by a devotional service.
“The night before the awards ceremony, one of our students gave the sweetest, most inspiring devotionals that brought the team to tears,” BYU team captain Shelby Monks told University Communications. “His message reminded us all how blessed and lucky we are to be a part of such a beautiful academic family, and how lucky we are to be able to share our testimonies to strengthen and uplift each other!”
The championship is the ninth in BYU landscaping’s storied history, with the Cougars placing ahead of defending champion Cuyahoga Community College and then Colorado State, BYU-Idaho and Michigan State to round out the top five.
Could we see a heated rivalry develop between BYU and BYU-Idaho in the landscaping circuit? Only time will tell.
Sixty BYU students took part in the competition, with 13 receiving scholarship awards. Isaac Broberg earned the de facto gold medal with a $5,000 President’s scholarship sum. Nine Cougars finished in first place for their individual events.
“I couldn’t help but feel that our students are helping fulfill, in at least a small way, the words of Spencer W. Kimball in his Second Century address when he spoke of BYU students having a unique light that we can send forth into the educational world,” BYU faculty coach Phil Allen said in BYU’s story. “I really feel like our team has done some special things here that are left undone by other institutions.”