The UMass student team that participated in the 2025 National Collegiate Landscape Competition pose for a photo with their faculty advisors

Academics

Alumni-supported UMass Team Participates in National Collegiate Landscape Competition

The award winners from the UMass student team that participated in the 2025 National Collegiate Landscape Competition pose for a photo — The student award winners from the National Collegiate Landscape Competition. Above: The student team poses with their faculty advisors.

Twelve students traveled to Colorado State University during spring break to compete in the National Collegiate Landscape Competition (NCLC), an annual three-day event that brings together the top landscape and horticulture students, top industry companies and dozens of the biggest industry manufacturers and suppliers.

Supervised and accompanied by Michael Davidsohn from the Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning (LARP), and Kristina Bezanson from the Department of Natural Resources Conservation, the UMass NCLC Team was made up of students representing landscape contracting, arboriculture, urban forestry, landscape architecture, turfgrass management and applied plant and soil sciences.

At the event, top industry employers judged 28 different events that tested the students’ skills and knowledge. The opportunity for students to demonstrate their hands-on skills to these employers was followed by a career fair, at which green industry companies from around the nation were represented.

Before traveling to the event, all UMass students had an opportunity to polish their résumés and practice their interview skills at one a career center on the UMass campus. The event allows some students the opportunity to return from the competition with job offers in hand, well before they graduate.

“None of this would have been possible without the support of our alumni donors, corporate donations and the continued support of the Massachusetts Association of Landscape Professionals and the Massachusetts Arborist Association,” Davidsohn says. “We’re thankful to our alumni and industry donors for generously supporting our students as they prepare to enter the Green Industries.”

Overall UMass placed 20^th out of 53 colleges and universities represented in the competition. The top three students or student teams in each event were recognized on the last day of the event at the closing ceremony, and several UMass students were included in the ceremony, including Eli Spencer (Landscape Architecture), second place for Interior Landscape Design, and James Walston (Landscape Architecture), third place for 3D Exterior Design. The team of Dante Filadoro (Turfgrass Science and Management), Jake Rasmuson (Landscape Contracting) and Matteo Mariano (Landscape Contracting) earned third place in the timed Landscape Plant Installation event.

The complete UMass NCLC Team for 2025 was:

Ben Haines (Landscape Contracting)
Matteo Mariano (Landscape Contracting)
Jake Rasmuson (Landscape Contracting)
Eli Spencer (Landscape Architecture)
James Walston (Landscape Architecture)
Nolan Doyle (Applied Plant & Soil Sciences)
June Moulis (Urban Forestry)
Henry Holmes (Arboriculture)
Dante Filadoro (Turfgrass Science and Management)
Jack Collins (Turfgrass Management)
Connor Salmon (Building and Construction Technology)
Sean Weber (Sustainable Community Development)