Asa Fix

News Reporter

 

The Mesa State College construction management team placed sixth overall at the Associated Schools Construction (ASC) competition on Feb. 11 in Sparks, Nevada.

The team of six construction management majors competed in the commercial category competition.

This was the first time Mesa State’s construction management team attended the competition. They didn’t know what to expect. “(Coming in) six out of 16 says something about what we are doing,” said team member Brett Kmetz. The team was only three hundredths of a point from placing fifth, and is made of team captain Brady Blackmer, junior; Katy Schreiner, senior; Kmetz, junior; Jeb Savage, junior; Oliver Gard, junior; and Lucas Watson, freshmen. 

They picked their category last spring and they worked on their project until the day of the competition. They met up a couple of hours on Tuesday and Thursday and seven to eight hours on Saturday. 

The competition required students to prepare a pre-qualification package/questionnaire, a safety plan, a storm water prevention plan, a company history, and organization and financial data. They were given descriptive clues about a building already in existence like the square footage, what type of building it was and what materials were used to build it. They had no idea what or where the building actually was.

On the day of the competition they started at 6 a.m. and had 16 hours to complete a construction schedule, an estimate of concrete, structural steel, and the shell of the building. It ended up being a 25 story building in Denver.

“It was kind of nice because we had a little local knowledge of the place,” Savage said.

Then they had to give a 15 minute presentation that included a PowerPoint and then had to answer 10 minutes of questions. 

There were six judges from Mortenson Construction company, who built the structure.

“They were acting as the owners of whoever bought the building, and we were presenting our work to see if we could get the job,” Savage said.

“The preparation the students did without ever having been there, magnifies the sense of their accomplishment. They didn’t know what they were shooting at. When you don’t know what you’re shooting at it’s hard to hit dead center,” said Charlie Gains, instructor of business and program coordinator of construction management.

MSC competes in Region 6 against schools like Boise State University, BYU, and Colorado State University.

The ASC Competition is widely regarded as one of the highlight events for undergraduate construction management majors. It is often mentioned as a way to be recognized when interviewing for a job or internship. 

The team is raising money for next year’s ASC competition and are looking for sponsors. They will host a golf tournament on April 17 in Delta, Colo. at Devil Thumb’s Golf Course. It costs $75 for one person to join and $280 for a group of four people. All companies and students are welcome. For entry forms and more information contact John Savage at jsavage@mesastate.edu.

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ajfix@mesastate.edu