UW-Platteville Places Third in National ABC Construction Management Competition

University of Wisconsin-Platteville's Student Chapter, affiliated with Associated Builders and Contractors of Wisconsin, today announced it placed third overall and second in estimating in the 2026 Construction Management Competition at ABC Convention 2026 in Salt Lake City on March 20. UW-Platteville's team was 1 of 30 teams who put their construction project leadership skills to the test by completing the same construction management project.

The 2026 UW-Platteville ABC Construction Management Competition Team was represented by students Mitchell Gudenkauf, Drew Polak, Isaac Dommer, Jadyn Fiedler, Gavin Thompson, Quinn Metzger, and Kody Durand.

The team worked on the Request for Proposal for six weeks prior to leaving for the competition. On Wednesday of the competition, the team submitted a hard bid to the judges and competed in Step II of the competition. This phase of competition included five addenda, which the team had five hours to adjust their estimate, schedule, safety, project management, and quality control plan, and resubmit by a certain time. At the Convention Opening Night Celebration, the team received news that they were shortlisted along with nine other teams to Step III. Step III of the competition consisted of a presentation to the panel of judges and 15 minutes of questions to determine which team should be selected for the project. The team handled the questions very well.

"I am very proud of our UW-Platteville CMC Team," said Gretchen Bockenhauer, UW-Plattevile construction management program coordinator and assistant professor. "This is a first in UW-Platteville history of the competition to be called on stage for an overall placing and in the category of estimating."

This year's project was the Salt Lake City Convention Center Hotel-known as Hyatt Regency Salt Lake. Teams were provided access to this project by ABC member contractor Hensel Phelps. This landmark project in downtown Salt Lake City refines the city's skyline with its exterior glass facade. The 686,000-square-foot, 25-story hotel has 517 guestrooms, over 60,000 square feet of meeting space, a lobby and reception area, a fitness center, multiple restaurants, a market, an outdoor pool, an event terrace and underground parking. In addition to the standard goals of completing the project on time and within budget, the primary goal is to avoid disrupting operations to the adjacent convention center during construction.

"The construction industry needs to bring in 349,000 new workers this year just to meet demand, and that includes experienced young construction management professionals like these because they can solve real-world problems so contractors can build quality infrastructure," said 2026 Chair of the ABC National Board of Directors Thomas "Murph" Murphy, vice president, Power & Construction Group, Scottsville, New York. "This exciting competition gives students valuable, resume-building experience while helping these young leaders achieve their construction career dreams. Congratulations to the team from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville for placing in this exciting competition."

All participants are active members of the ABC National Student Chapter Network, which connects local ABC chapters to colleges and universities with construction management programs to build the talent pipeline and mentor future leaders of the construction industry.

The competition is led and supported by ABC National's Construction Management Committee and a panel of over 30 industry experts served as the competition's judges. The committee and judges included representatives from Balfour Beatty, Brasfield & Gorrie, DEWALT, FCI Constructors Inc., Gaylor Electric, Hensel Phelps, Hoar Construction, PCL, Randall Construction and Walt Disney Imagineering.

A full list of the winners is available at abc.org/cmc.

About ABC: Associated Builders and Contractors is a national construction industry trade association established in 1950 with 67 chapters and more than 23,000 members. Founded on the merit shop philosophy, ABC helps members offer a robust employee value proposition, develop people, win work and deliver that work safely, ethically and profitably for the betterment of the communities in which ABC and its members work.