Gators, Rams and a pair of Tigers take the stage at the student competition

By Lauren White.

Four teams compete at the 12th annual Construction Management Student Competition during IRE 2026.

Wednesday morning of the 2026 IRE week started off with the 12^th annual Roofing Alliance Construction Management Student Competition – one of our favorite events of the week and it was a full house! Competing this year were teams from Auburn University, Clemson University, University of Florida and Colorado State University.

This competition not only exposes students to a variety of skills and options in the roofing industry, but also promotes careers in roofing industry management. Price is not the only thing students must take into consideration for this project. They are also responsible for providing solutions for safety, logistics, schedule and quality control.

Each year, a project is selected in the city where the competition takes place. This year, the project is a roof replacement for the low-sloped roof areas of the roof at the Cannery Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

What makes this project challenging is that the casino and hotel will remain open during the project. Having received multiple “Best of Las Vegas” awards, the Cannery Casino provides a high-quality experience for their guests, meaning the competitors need to make sure they are able to continue to operate at a high level without interruptions, problems or diminishing the guest experience.

While the students are here in Las Vegas, they have the opportunity to tour the location and do a roof walk, giving them the chance to see the project they’ve been working on all year in person. This roof walk gives competitors an opportunity to talk through and evaluate their work.

12 teams entered the competition, submitting written proposals in November 2025, and based on the judges scores, four final teams were selected to compete in Las Vegas for the final portion of the competition, delivering a 15-minute oral presentation, followed by 10 minutes of Q&A by the judges. During the competition, judges take on the roles of contractors, owners and design teams who are searching for the best team to meet the demand of the roof project at hand.

Here's a brief breakdown of the competition:

• Colorado State University — Competing for the tenth time, the CSU team kicked off the morning with their company, Cowboy Roofing. This year's team includes: Kathleen Henneuse; Thomas Parrott; Rafael Serrano-Talavera; Brandon Gallis (team captain).
• Next up was the University of Florida competing for the twelfth time – as TCB Roofing. Their team members are: Sophia Petrandis; Tyler Isaacson; Christian Walker; Nicholas Fredette (team alternate); Rylee Rauktis (team captain).
• The third team competing was Clemson University. Their school has been in this competition for seven years. Ben Reynolds; Drake Hamlin IV; Remi Nguyen (team captain); Grant Michael Thomas; Sean Linnane (team alternate). By the Book Roofing
• The final team to compete was Auburn University. Their team is comprised of: Heather Henderson; Patrick Johnson; Graham Roh (team captain); Ashwin Varadhan (team alternate); Madi Goodwin.

Judges this year are:

• Michelle Boykin, branch manager of Weather Shield Roofing Systems
• John Campbell, vice president of Eagle Roofing Products
• Helene Hardy-Pierce, has spent more than 40 years in the industry, serving as the vice president of technical services, codes and industry relations for GAF for 15 years
• Brian Justice, lead commercial estimator and project manager at Commercial Roofers, Inc.
• Scott Kawulok, vice president of B & M Roofing
• Bob Pringle, vice president/principal of Evans Roofing Company
• John Yuko, president of GSM Roofing

The competition includes a written proposal as well as an oral presentation. They are scored on quality, accuracy/feasibility, innovation, creativity, use of technology, quality of safety and quality control/quality assurance plans and quality of answers to the judges questions, among others. The team with the highest cumulative score from the judges based on their written and oral presentation is the winner, receiving a $5,000 L.B. Conway scholarship for their school, as well as individual trophies. Awards are also given to the first and second place best individual presenters.

As always, we continue to be impressed by these students, their professionalism and their thoughtfulness considering all aspects of the roofing project. The future looks bright for the roofing industry!

We will be interviewing the teams on our sound stage, so be sure to check out those videos on our YouTube channel!