BYU takes home top prize in national landscaping competition

PROVO — BYU is known for its neatly kept campus and over the weekend, landscape management students took top honors in a national competition, for the second year in a row.

“I have always enjoyed the outdoors, hiking, I grew up on a horse ranch so I enjoy that,” said Marco Crosland, a senior from Idaho.

Crosland is pursuing a degree and will graduate next month in landscape management. Saturday night in North Carolina, he came away with the top prize out of 710 students, who competed from more than 60 colleges and universities around the country.

“Our mission at BYU is to help everybody had a good time, to work together and to really uplift the industry and winning is just a bonus,” he added.

He also said he has already received job offers in the industry.

Similar to a track meet, the students compete in a wide variety of events, testing their landscape knowledge, design and practical application. Thirty-two students competed for BYU. When it wrapped up on Saturday night, the students score put BYU in first and the highest team score ever recorded in the history of the National Collegiate Landscape Competition. And it is the sixth time BYU has taken top honors.

“It was fun to get the whole team comradery going, we all became a lot closer through this and we won which made it even better at the end,” said Leslie Stewart, a junior from Texas.

“There were 120 companies that were interviewing for excellent positions all over the country, we have not had a student graduate without a least one employment offer for several years,” said Phil Allen, a professor of landscape management.

And not only did BYU win the first place trophy, but nine BYU students won scholarships, amounting to more than $15,000.

RELATED LINK: Landscapeprofessionals.org