WKU Engineering Students Win Regional Competitions

April 05, 2007

Bowling Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University civil engineering students brought home top honors at the annual Ohio Valley Regional Student Conference.

WKU students won the concrete canoe competition for the 12th straight year and added first-place finishes in concrete Frisbee and technical paper competitions along with second place in the surveying competition and third in the steel bridge competition.

The Ohio Valley Regional Student Conference was held March 29-31 at Ohio State University in Columbus. Other participating schools included Kentucky, Louisville, Carnegie Mellon, Cincinnati, Cincinnati State, Cleveland State, Dayton, Geneva, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Stark State College of Technology, Ohio State and Youngstown State.

In the concrete canoe competition, WKU won the best oral presentation, best final product, men’s slalom/endurance race, women’s slalom/endurance race, men’s sprint race and women’s sprint race and took second in best design paper. The concrete canoe team advanced to the national competition June 14-16 in Seattle. WKU has finished in the top 10 nationally in six of the past seven years.

Concrete canoe team members include Brandon Bagby of Greensburg, Sarah Barker of Frankfort, Brian Ferguson of Greensburg, Joshua Melson of Campbellsville, Devon Moore of Bowling Green, Stuart Payton of Bowling Green, Bryan Phillips of Glasgow, Parker Sloan of Shawnee Mission, Kan., Seth Warren of Antioch, Calif., Jon Whitaker of Rockfield, David Coomes of Philpot, Sean O’Bryan of Whitesville, Catie Gay of Evansville, Ind., Kelly Stolt of Nashville, Tenn., Kal Vencill of Richmond, Sarah Bertke of Reynolds Station, Erica Rigney of Mount Washington, Chris Simpson of Bowling Green, and LeAndra Chandler of Livermore.

In the steel bridge competition, WKU finished third overall. Team members include Chad Doughty of Woodbury, Adam Evans of Monticello, Joseph Kelly of Brandenburg, Sarah Kohler of Bowling Green, Justin Young of Morgantown, Austin Shields of Lexington, Matt White of Mount Juliet, Tenn., Brad Hall of Russellville, David Morse of Kingwood, Texas, JP Tilley of Paducah, Kurt Smith of New Haven, and Brad Dobina of Louisville.

In the concrete Frisbee competition, WKU won best overall and had first-place finishers in men’s distance (Parker Sloan of Shawnee Mission, Kan.) and women’s distance (Magon Kirby of Auburn). Other team members included Brad Hall of Russellville, Sean O’Bryan of Whitesville and David Coomes of Philpot.

In the technical paper competition, WKU’s David Hurd of Bowling Green won best overall.

In the surveying competition, the team of Sean O’Bryan of Whitesville, Clint Ervin of Greensburg and David Coomes of Philpot placed second overall.

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 Shane Palmquist at (270) 745-2919.