2011 PLANET Competition

After a 3 year hiatus from PLANET Student Career Days, the Hort Hokies returned to their old form last weekend by placing among the top ten teams from across the country. Over 850 students participated in the four-day conference held near Chicago at Joliet Junior College. Virginia Tech was the top ACC school (7th), with NSCU (11th), University of Maryland (14th) and Clemson (15th) also placing high in the competition. WVU finished 29th.

Eight students won individual honors placing in the top four in their respective events. Tish Poteet placed 2nd in the Annual & Perennial ID event, Samantha Hugo placed 3rd in the 3D Exterior Landscape Design event, JB Snelson placed 3rd in Irrigation Troubleshooting, Travis Jowers placed 3rd in the Tractor Loader Backhoe Operations event, and Jake Shreckhise place 3rd in Woody Ornamental Plant ID. The team of Billy Yuhase and Paul Hutcheson placed 4th in the Arboriculture Techniques event and Anne Howell placed 4th (with a perfect score) in Maintenance Cost Estimating.

Also notable were:

• The team of Laura Shields and Paul Hutcheson placed 8th in Personnel Management
• The team of Wesley Chiles and Zebulon Ethier placed 9th in Truck & Trailer Operation
• Andrew Ransone placed 10th in Compact Excavator Operation
• Tish Poteet placed 10th in Interior Landscape Design
• The team of David Fetchko and Andrew Ransone placed 11th in Paver Installation
• Daniel King placed 11th in Maintenance Cost Estimating
• Anthony Piselli placed 12th in Exterior Landscape DesignEvery student who attended contributed to our success. Even if a student doesn’t place high in an event, his/her points are added to the team’s total. While the team officially was sponsored by the Horticulture Department, there were students from the Ag Tech program, Ag Econ, Mechanical Engineering and Landscape Architecture.