Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A Mississippi State team is among the overall winners in a national student competition for landscape architecture and landscape contracting majors.
Team members were among some 950 participants from 65 universities and colleges taking part recently in the 2008 Student Career Days organized by the Professional Landcare Network--known usually by the acronym PLANET. Held this year in Acworth, Ga., the annual challenge is supported by several corporate sponsors.
When all the points had been tallied from 25 individual and team competitions, MSU was ranked eighth in the challenge.
Senior Russell C. Holmes of Clinton finished first in irrigation design, while junior Nathaniel C. "Nathan" Taylor of Marietta, Ga., was among the top three finalists in skid-steer operation and among the top five in compact utility loader operation. Holmes and Taylor are landscape contracting majors.
Other MSU students finishing among the top five in other categories included:
--Senior landscape contracting major Michael L. Frazier Jr. of Yazoo City, irrigation troubleshooting;
--Senior landscape architecture major Jessica N. Wells of Brandon, leadership skills;
--Senior landscape contracting major Jed S. Dowdle of Columbus, safety management; and
--Sophomore Christopher D. "Chris" Jones of Wayside and junior Nolan Eason of Olive Branch, both landscape architecture majors and both in the truck and trailer operation category.
Team members finishing among the top 10 in still other categories included:
--Senior landscape contracting major Michael C. Kinard of Jackson [39309], maintenance cost estimating; and
--Senior Michael C. Cox of Forest, turf and turf pest identification.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.