The National Collegiate Landscaping Competition returned to Fort Collins and Colorado State University with record numbers.
The National Association of Landscape Professionals’ annual event drew 56 schools and 770 students, including several new faces and universities.
“Missouri is a perfect example,” Britt Wood, NALP CEO, said. “They brought seven kids last year, and they had to turn people away this year. BYU brought 60 kids this year, which is a new record.”
In addition to new students and schools, several new companies participated in the event and the career fair. That came about after a change that NALP implemented ahead of the event.
“To attend, you have to be a member,” Wood said. “We had several members who came on board just for this event. That’s how important this event is for us and the industry.”
Alongside the new companies were returning exhibitors with an expanded presence, including Mariani Premier Group, which had eight booth spaces staffed by employees from recently acquired companies. One of the new companies on hand was Scythe Robotics, based in Longmont, Colo., 45 minutes south of Fort Collins.
“It’s fantastic to see the enthusiasm of the students. They’re eager and excited to learn, especially about a robotic solution like we’re showing,” said Billy Otteman, senior director of brand at Scythe. “It’s also fantastic to see the industry support from across the country here to educate students, engage them and excite them for the careers that they have ahead.”
Moving back east
After two years in the mountain time zone, NCLC will be moving back east in 2026 to Michigan State University. NALP also announced that in 2027, Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) will host the event for the first time.
When talking with LM at the 2024 NCLC in Provo, Utah, Wood said that NALP was unsure if Tri-C, based in northeast Ohio, had the facilities necessary to host the event.
“It presents a unique opportunity for this event as we move forward,” Wood said of the 2027 event. “When we spoke to Tri-C, it was a question of whether or not the campus has the facilities to support this. But being next to a big city like Cleveland, the Cleveland Convention Center has more than enough space to satisfy this.”
As a result, NALP will host its networking events — the career fair, industry, faculty and student receptions and opening and closing ceremonies — in downtown Cleveland, while Tri-C’s campus hosts the competitive events.
“We’re excited about going to Cleveland in a couple of years, and I think Tri-C is going to do a great job hosting, and we’re excited about it,” Wood adds. “We think as we move forward, we can do the research to ask, ‘Is there a convention center close enough to a school?’ We hope that this will give more schools a chance to host.”
Back-to-back winners
Brigham Young University’s Provo campus team took home the first-place trophy for the second year in a row with a score of 5115.20. The second and third-place finishers also remained the same, with Cuyahoga Community College coming in second and Colorado State ranking third.
Top student finishers included top overall performer Alexsis Perrmann from Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Christine Kermond from Tri-C and Nate Hawks from Michigan State University.
To view the complete list of schools and student scores, click here.
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