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Department of Plant Sciences Turfgrass Science and Management Students Achieve Second Place at the National Sports Turf Managers Association’s Annual Conference and Exhibition

From January 13th through January 17th, San Jose, California was the host city for the 2009 Annual Conference and Exhibition of the Sports Turf Managers Association. This was the fifth year of the challenge and there were 23 teams competing in the four year competition.Through the generosity of SAFE and Hunter, the winning two-year team and the winning four-year team each with a $4,000 grant to fund a practical learning lab at their university

University of Tennessee Plant Sciences undergraduate team of Lucas Graham, Marty Wallace, Lucas Freshour, and Sean Elverd was awarded second place in the Student Challenge. The Student Challenge was a two hour exam that consisted of turfgrass, insect, weed, and disease identification, sports turf and budgeting related case studies, pesticides application and calibration, irrigation and sports turf playability questions. Teams from Penn State came in first and third.

The head field manager for UT, Bob Campbell, CSFM, received STMA’s highest honor, the Harry C. Gill Memorial Award.      MORE>>