For the ninth time in the past ten years the ISU Turf Club was declared champions of the national Turf Bowl trophy.

The Turf Bowl is a national competition sponsored by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. This is a turf management contest specialized for students who aspire to pursue careers as golf course superintendents following graduation.

This year the Turf Bowl was held in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 7-11. ISU had four teams in the contest each made up of four people. The teams placed first, 17th, 47th and 48th. The winning team consisted of Nick Dunlap, Zach Simons, Quincy Law and Jason Van Engen, all seniors in horticulture.

The competition consists of a three-and-a-half hour test that covers plant identification, insect and disease ID, mathematics, writing, plant physiology, soil science, business management and a variety of other subjects involved in the field of horticulture.

It is a 500-point test that consists of identification of diseases, turf samples, weed samples, insects, seeds and soils. Multiple choice questions account for 340 of the points. This included turf math, a business section, a disease section, an insect section, a weed section, soils and irrigation. There also was a fill in the blank section that covers parts of a grass plant, parts of a seed, parts of a reel mower, United States Golf Association specification green labeling, filling out a soil particle size chart and knowing scientific names of around 30 turf grass species as well as an essay at the end.

“Once the test starts you try to concentrate on just the test itself and the strategies your team has come up with,” Dunlap said. “However, being placed in a room with hundreds of other students from around the country, I always have a ‘what if’ thought in my mind. What if this one question is what determines first and second place?”

“One of the most important parts of all is the case study, in which we get 30 minutes to write a 3-4 page essay on the case study they give us,” said Seth Triplett, senior in horticulture, president of the ISU Turf Club and a member of one of the competing teams at the competition.

The ISU Turf Club is a student organization that is run through the horticulture department and primarily made up of students interested in all aspects of turf grass management.

Throughout the year the organization works to raise money by doing fertilizer and herbicide applications to the turf areas at Reiman Gardens. The money they raise goes to the club and is also used to fund their annual trip to the national Turf Bowl, their primary event.

“This year 320 students participated,” said Nick Christians, university professor in horticulture and Turf Club adviser. “There were 87 teams from 39 schools around the United States.”

The Turf Bowl the Turf Club’s biggest event of the year, which has been a very successful venture for the ISU Turf Club. In the past 13 years, the club has grabbed first place 11 times. The two times they didn’t get first place, they got second place instead.  The team dedicates much time to prepare for the competition.

“We hold several study sessions which follow our meetings late in the fall semester and each week prior to the turf bowl in the second semester,” Triplett said. “These sessions are ran by Marcus Jones and he is a major component to our success. We would not be where we are now without him helping us prepare for this competition.”

“The students realize the benefits of performing well in the Turf Bowl go far beyond the trophy and cash prize,” said Jones, graduate in horticulture. “The skill set needed to perform well in this competition is very similar to what they will be expected to know when they enter the field.”

The team members felt like they were plenty prepared for the exam. However, they were still a bit nervous about how they had performed.

“Going into the exam I felt really good about our team’s chances because the amount of time we put in studying and the experience we have,” Simons said. “After taking the exam I was nervous because the test had been changed since the previous years and I felt like there were quite a few questions we were unsure about.”

As the top ten teams were announced, the ISU team members began to feel more confident about how they had placed.

“At the point that they announced the second place I went from the most nervous I have ever been to the most excited I have been in quite some time,” Van Engen said. “It was a wonderful experience.”

“Personally I was very confident in our number one team,” Triplett said. “They were all nervous about it when it came time for the awards ceremony, but I had a very good feeling they had it won.”

The winners received a $4,000 check, which will go to benefit the club. It will also fund next year’s trip to the Turf Bowl, which will be in Las Vegas.