Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University engineering student teams have again demonstrated their excellence by dominating the regional concrete canoe, steel bridge and concrete frisbee competitions with first-place finishes and second place in the surveying competition.

Winning margins were about 50 percent over the second-place finishes in the regional event last weekend at the University of Cincinnati. Other teams competing in the Ohio Valley regional included Kentucky, Ohio State, Cincinnati, Cincinnati State, Youngstown State and Carnegie Mellon.

The winning teams for the concrete canoe and steel bridge competitions advance to the national competitions. The other events do not have national competitions. This is the 10th year in a row for WKU's concrete canoe to advance to nationals. The surveying team placed second despite the fact that the competition used out-of-date equipment that the WKU students had never seen before the competition.

"A key purpose of the engineering programs at WKU is to support economic development by providing highly skilled engineering graduates to help solve technical problems in regional industry," said John Reis, department head. "The outstanding performance of the students in these competitions relative to students from other institutions bodes well for our students, for the companies that hire them, and for the economic growth of this region."

Concrete canoe team members are Kyle Hunt of Morgantown, Andy Hawkins of Munfordville, Matt Rogers of Columbia, Will McDonough of Owensboro, Shannon Hayes of McKenzie, Tenn., Darren Stewart of Roundhill, Derek Marshall of Burlington and Kurt Cooper of Bowling Green.

Steel bridge team members are Travis Carrico of Springfield, Andrew Stewart of Scottsville, Eric Belaj of Vlore, Albania, Mitch Ratliff of Frankfort, Michael O'Reilly of Hardinsburg, James Jones of Somerset, Jason Miles of Elizabethtown, Tony Kelly of Brandenburg, Cody Humble and Adam Evans, both of Monticello.

Frisbee team members are Ashly Miller of Indianapolis, Stacey Tinius of Owensboro, and Jason Wilson and Kurt Cooper, both of Bowling Green.

Surveying team members are Kevin Collignon of Philpot, and Cody Humble and Adam Evans, both of Monticello.

"As always, I believe this to be a testament to not only the quality of the engineering programs and students, but to WKU as a whole as these students utilize writing, speaking, critical thinking, teamwork and many other skills obtained in classes throughout their educational career in many departments on this campus," said Matthew Dettman, the Scott professor of civil engineering and concrete canoe adviser.

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact Engineering Department at (270) 745-2461.