Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University students have finished among the nation's best in civil engineering competitions.

Western's concrete canoe team placed 10th in the National Concrete Canoe Competition while the steel bridge team finished 12th in the National Student Steel Bridge Competition.

Western students have advanced to the concrete canoe nationals for 10 consecutive years and have finished in the top 10 in five of the past six years, including fourth in 2002.

The top 20 finishers in the 18th annual ASCE National Concrete Canoe Competition, held June 25-27 at Clemson University, are: Wisconsin-Madison, Clemson, Michigan Tech, California-Berkeley, U.S. Military Academy/West Point, Evansville, Florida, California State Polytechnic University Pomona, City College of New York, Western Kentucky's "Black Widow," Drexel, Fairmont State, North Carolina State, New Mexico State, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Wisconsin-Platteville, Boise State and Tulane. Twenty-one teams qualified for nationals.

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. The team adviser is Matthew Dettman, the Scott professor of civil engineering at WKU.

In the steel bridge competition, held May 27-28 at the University of Central Florida, Western placed third in stiffness, eighth in efficiency, 18th in aesthetics, 22nd in construction speed and economy, and 23rd in lightness. Forty-four teams qualified for nationals.

The top 20 in the 14th annual competition is as follows: California-Davis, Florida, Louisiana State, North Dakota State, SUNY-Canton, Alaska-Fairbanks, Michigan, California State-Chico, Ecole de Tecnologie Superieure University in Quebec, California-San Diego, Oklahoma State, Western Kentucky, Lakehead, Southern Polytechnical, Virginia Tech, Illinois, Penn State, University of British Columbia, California State-Long Beach and Tennessee.

Steel bridge team members are Eric Belaj of Vlore, Albania, Travis Carrico of Springfield, Andrew Stewart of Scottsville, Mitch Ratliff of Frankfort, Michael O'Reilly of Hardinsburg, James Jones of Somerset, Jason Miles of Elizabethtown, Tony Kelly of Brandenburg, Adam Evans of Monticello and Jason Wilson of Bowling Green. Team adviser is Dr. Doug Schmucker, assistant professor.

For more on the concrete canoe national event, click on http://www.asce.org/inside/nccc2005/index.cfm. For more on the WKU concrete canoe team, click on http://www.wku.edu/concretecanoe/. For more on the steel bridge national event, click on http://www.nssbc2005.org.

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 the Engineering Department at (270) 745-2461.