Former intern credits Q&D experience for helping in collegiate contest
Zane Cummings is going places. Q&D Construction’s 2024 summer intern is in his junior year at Montana State University in Bozeman and he’s leaving his mark.
Cummings (pictured second from right in front row of adjacent pic) was back in the Truckee Meadows last weekend, helping his MSU Heavy/Civil Construction Management team compete in the Region VI ASC Estimating Competition, hosted by Kiewit at the Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks. The six-member Bobcats team didn’t just compete, it thrived, besting 18 other mountain states schools to win the competition.
“We wanted to place (Top 3), but we didn’t think we’d get first,” said Cummings, a 2022 graduate of Sierra Lutheran High School in Carson. “We put in so many hours. We started prepping for the competition last August by looking at different projects and different processes. When we learned we had gotten first, it was surreal, really cool. We worked hard and got it done.”
The college teams received their contest packet at 6 a.m. last Thursday and had until 10 p.m. (16 hours) to turn in their bid packet. Thursday marked the work day. Friday saw teams give their presentations, and Saturday, the awards ceremony was hosted. Montana State’s teams, in 13 years of competing, had never won the top prize. In the previous five contests, Montana State did not even put together a responsive bid, meaning its entry failed to meet qualifications to be judged for placement.
“At first, it was a little disheartening as they started to name off the placers,” Cummings said. “I didn’t know if our caliber of work was good enough for first. But in the end it was. This was kind of a big deal for us …
“My Q&D experience last summer helped a lot. The internship gave me the understanding of the construction process, how to build projects and how to estimate them. I got to learn a lot from Q&D, which set me apart. That helped me become our team captain. I contribute a lot of the success I had, and our team had, to my experience at Q&D.”
Cummings calls Genoa, NV his home. He is set to graduate from Montana State in the spring of 2026.