ACC Horticulture Students Excel at National Landscaping Competition, Place in Top 10 in U.S.

ACC’s Horticulture Technology student team at NC State University.

(March 21, 2002) – Alamance Community College’s Horticulture Technology students excelled at last week’s 46^th National Collegiate Landscape Competition as the team finished 10^th among 43 colleges and universities from across the U.S.

Held on the NC State University campus March 16-19, ACC’s 16 students matched their horticulture and landscaping skills in contests against 510 competing students. Individual students and teams placed high in the competitions to accumulate scores that pushed ACC into the upper echelons of the competition.

Among ACC’s 42 competitors were Colorado State University, Auburn University, Brigham Young University, Michigan State University, NC State, and approximately 12 community colleges.

This was the 19^th consecutive year that ACC’s Horticulture department had attended this national event, including virtual events due to Covid the past two years. The annual event provides students opportunities to spend a day in workshops led by industry professionals, attend a career fair featuring more than 50 top landscape companies from across the U.S., and pit their horticulture skills in numerous competitions.

“Our students put in hours of preparation time and worked diligently at their competitions. They competed against others with huge teams and some from large four-year universities, and they still came out on top,” said Dr. Elizabeth Riley, Department Head of Horticulture Technology at ACC, who accompanied the team to the event.

Five ACC students placed high overall in individual scoring:

• Eric Levine – Finished 2nd out of 510 students
• Cody Byrd – Finished 4th out of 510 students
• Robert Brogan – Finished 12th out of 510 students
• Laura Miller – Finished 16th out of 510 students
• Wendy Lipscomb – Finished 29th out of 510 students

ACC students and teams who placed in the top 10:

• Eric Levine, 1^st place in Robotics & Technology in Landscape Design & Maintenance
• Laura Miller and Eric Levine, 1^st place in Employee Development
• Cody Byrd, 1^st place in Small Engine Repair
• Eric Levine, 2^nd place in Mini Track Loader Operation
• Laura Miller, 3^rd place in Plant Problem Diagnosis
• Robert Brogan, 3^rd place in Compact Excavator Operation
• Eric Levine, 5^th place in Business Management
• Anaya McKenna-Bosse’, 5^th place in Construction Cost Estimating
• Herlinda Linder, Robert Brogan, Wendy Lipscomb finished 7^th place in Landscape Plant Install
• Charlie Cheema, 9^th place in Interior Landscape Design
• Laura Miller, 9^th place in Woody Plant ID
• Wendy Lipscomb and Charlie Cheema, 9^th place in Irrigation Assembly
• Lauren Staley and Laura Miller, 10^th place in Irrigation Troubleshooting
• Charles Cheema, 10^th place in Irrigation Design

Said ACC’s Riley: “I am so proud of our students in more ways than I can express. The students are the reason we are here and come into work every day, and I am glad they had their chance to show off their skills nationally.”