CPP Students Excel at National Landscaping Competition

Several Cal Poly Pomona students recorded top 10 finishes in individual events at a recent national landscaping competition.

A team of nine students participated in the 46^th National Collegiate Landscaping Competition at North Carolina State University, March 16-19.

The event, which is sponsored by the National Association of Landscape Professionals, challenges students from universities nationwide in events ranging from irrigation and landscape design to business operations and equipment operation.

A team of three plant science students – Shubham Malani, Erwing Castillo, and Eduardo Barragan – earned second place in the Landscape Plant Installation event, beating teams from forty other universities and colleges.

Meanwhile, Megan Davis and Rebecca Jurado, both agribusiness and food industry management majors took third place in the Employee Development (Personnel Management) competition.

Kate Golden, another agribusiness and food industry management major) finished in third in the Annual & Perennial Identification event and eighth in Business Management.

Barragan and fellow plant science major Felipe Aguilera teamed up to take seventh place in the Irrigation Troubleshooting competition.

Animal science major Jenny Lau took eighth in Interior Plant Identification.

Barragan was the highest-ranked Cal Poly Pomona student in the competition, finishing in the top 10 percent out of 510 participating students.

Because of the surge in COVID-19 cases and travel restrictions, it wasn’t clear if Cal Poly Pomona would send a team to the NCLC competition until the spring semester started.

As a result, the team opted out of participating in certain events --- there was not enough time to prepare safely for events like arboriculture and heavy equipment operation. However, a smaller group of students had prepared for the plant identification and business management events.

Also, Aguilera and Barragan had prepared for the irrigation troubleshooting event in 2020, but that competition was canceled because of COVID-19. They were able to restart their preparation for this year’s competition.

Despite having such a small team this year, Cal Poly Pomona averaged 138 points per student. By comparison, the university that won the competition – Brigham Young University – averaged 128 points per student.

Aaron Fox and Tracey Takeuchi, faculty in the Department of Plant Science, were the team’s advisors.