June 18, 2001

WKU Concrete Canoe Team Finishes 8th In Nation

Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University's "Aquavette" cruised to an eighth-place finish last weekend in the 14th annual National Concrete Canoe Competition.

For the second straight year, Western civil engineering students recorded a best-ever finish and placed in the top 10 in the nation.

"I think the fact that we continue to move up in the ranking is a testament to our students and to our perseverance," said Matthew Dettman, civil engineering professor and team adviser.

"A second top 10 finish is very impressive," Dettman said, noting the caliber of competition at what he called the "Super Bowl of engineering competitions."

The University of Alabama-Huntsville won the 14th annual concrete canoe competition at San Diego State University followed by Clemson, Oklahoma State, Canada's Universite Laval, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Minnesota, Drexel, WKU, California-Berkeley and Colorado School of Mines.

"We're in very good company," Dettman said.

The accomplishments of Western students "are just incredible considering the types of schools they are competing against," he said. Western's program and team include just undergraduate students while most other programs and teams have undergraduate and graduate students, Dettman said.

"Our team members deserve all the accolades they receive," he said.

Western, which is converting from an engineering technology program to an engineering program, advanced to the national competition by winning its sixth consecutive Ohio Valley Regional this spring.

The concrete canoe competition is 70 percent academic (display, oral presentation and design paper) and 30 percent athletic (five races). Teams use a six-page design paper, a five-minute oral presentation and a visual display to communicate to judges how the project was completed including research, canoe hull design, concrete mix design, construction process and management of team members, budget and time.

The other finalists (in order of finish) were Wisconsin, Michigan Tech, Cal-Poly at San Luis Obispo, Oklahoma, North Carolina State, Virginia Tech, Washington State, Rowan, U.S. Military Academy, New Orleans, Rhode Island, Texas-El Paso and Texas-San Antonio. The competition is sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers and Master Builders.

Competitions like the concrete canoe and steel bridge (WKU finished 25th) are putting Western's engineering program and its students in the national spotlight.
Next year will be Western's 10th to participate in the concrete canoe competition. "We're going to do something really special," Dettman said.

WKU's 2001 concrete canoe team members included Scott Neighbors, Chad Ford and Shawn Herman, all Bowling Green seniors; 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; Jon Diemer, a freshman from Franklin, Tenn.; Ryan Pregel, a senior from Gallatin, Tenn.; Jerod Kaufman, a senior from Kenai, Alaska; Deneatra Flener, a Morgantown junior; Brian Bidwell, a senior from Conneaut, Ohio; Chris Bates, a Sacramento senior; and Matt Shockley, a Mount Washington junior.

More information about the national competition, sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers and Master Builders, is available on the Internet at http://www.masterbuilders.com/MB/static/canoe/default.htm.

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.