WKU News & Events

June 26, 2002

WKU Concrete Canoe Team
Finishes Fourth In Country

Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University's Concrete Canoe Team earned its best finish ever, placing fourth in the country overall and first in the academic portion of the National Concrete Canoe Competition.

WKU's "Evolution" finished 3.5 points from second place among the 25 entries in the 15th annual competition in Madison, Wisc. Western finished eighth in 2001 and 10th in 2000 and has advanced to national competition for seven consecutive years.

"To finish first in the nation in the academic portion is really something for us," said Matt Dettman, team adviser. "The competition was tough and we were able to step up in the academics."

Dettman said the competition includes schools with master's and doctoral programs in engineering, and schools with large teams.

"We're a small team, so we had to focus on the areas where we would score the most points," he said. "Our guys had to do everything. For us to win the academics portion against master's and doctoral students is really an outstanding achievement."

Clemson University won the overall competition, followed by Universite Laval from Canada and Oklahoma State University. Host University of Wisconsin-Madison finished fifth.

Western finished first in Best Display and second in Best Oral Presentation and Best Final Product.

Western also had an entry in the 11th annual National Student Steel Bridge Competition. WKU has advanced to national competition for three straight years. While the team did not finish in the top three, the team's actual finish has not been released.

Western was one of just eight schools to qualify teams in both major competitions at the American Society of Civil Engineers 150th Anniversary National Student Conference June 21-24 in Madison, Wis. The others are Clemson, Michigan State, Texas A&M, Colorado State, Wisconsin-Madison, Florida, Texas-El Paso and California Polytechnic-San Luis Obispo.

"We hope this finish will fire up some of the younger guys to get them involved in next year's competition," Dettman said.

Members of the WKU concrete canoe team include: Clay Ellis of Beaver Dam; Deneatra Flener of Morgantown; Matt Shockley of Mount Washington; Chris Bates of Sacramento; Brian Bidwell of Conneaut, Ohio; Jason Sparks of Woodburn; Scott Neighbors of Bowling Green; Anthony Elmore of Leitchfield; Nick Soards of Glasgow; Matt Greene of Gallatin, Tenn.; Jason Michael of Louisa; Cody Henderson of Morgantown; Josh Moore of Bowling Green; and Daniel Kirby of Alvaton.

Members of the WKU student steel bridge team include: Dan Haney of Munster, Ind.; Danny Bratcher and Josh Miller of Bowling Green; Daniel Kirby of Alvaton; Larry Shelton of Owensboro; Aaron Talbot of Greenbrier, Tenn.

Additional information is available at the national student conference's website at http://www.cae.wisc.edu/~asce150/index2.html

For more information, contact Matthew Dettman at (270) 745-2462 or Greg Mills at (270) 745-5850. 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.