April 09, 2001

WKU Concrete Canoe Team Ready To Defend Regional Title

Bowling Green, Ky. - "Aquavette: America's Concrete Canoe" will take to the water Saturday as Western Kentucky University engineering students aim for their sixth straight regional title.

In the past eight years, Western civil engineering students have won six Ohio Valley Regional concrete canoe competitions. The team finished 10th in the nation last year, Western's best finish ever in national competition.

Team adviser Matthew Dettman expects stiff competition at Basil Griffin Park on Three Springs Road. Other universities expected to compete include Kentucky, Cincinnati, Dayton, Toledo and Pittsburgh.

"The competition is stepping up. We are the Tiger Woods of the Ohio Valley Regional, but there are plenty of Phil Mickelsons and David Duvals out there ready to take the title," Dettman said, using a golf analogy.

The regional contest begins with oral presentations at 10:30 a.m. Races begin at noon. Awards will be presented at 3:30 p.m.

"This project is not about building a concrete canoe," Dettman said. "It's about building engineers. The canoe project teaches problem solving, teamwork and initiative."

Team co-captain Scott Neighbors agreed. "The main thing we learn out of this is problem solving," the Bowling Green senior said. "At any point in time you can face a problem that must be solved before the project can continue."

Project management also requires people management, Neighbors said. "Building a concrete canoe is not something you'd do every day in the real world, but all the management techniques will be used daily," he said.

"As the manager of a construction site, I'd have to manage people to get the job done," Neighbors said.

Neighbors and other team members have been working on the canoe's design since August. The planning for Aquavette actually began as the team drove back from the national competition last July in Colorado.

"Our objective is learn from the past and improve," Dettman said.

This year's national concrete canoe competition is scheduled for June 14-16 in San Diego.

Other team members are co-captain Chad Ford, a Bowling Green senior; Clay Ellis, a Beaver Dam senior; Luke Ritter, a Bowling Green junior; Jason Sparks, a Woodburn senior; Valerie Lynch, a senior from County Cork, Ireland; Darren Wheat, a Scottsville senior; Shawn Herman, a Bowling Green senior; John Diemer, a freshman from Franklin, Tenn.; Ryan Pregel, a senior from Gallatin, Tenn.; and Jerod Kaufman, a senior from Kenai, Alaska.

More information is available at the event's website www.wku.edu/concretecanoe

For more information, contact Matt Dettman at (270) 745-2462. More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via E-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.