Civil Engineering students from the College of Engineering & Technology competed, and did quite well, for the first time at the annual Collegiate Concrete Canoe Competition. The competition pits engineering student’s cement canoes in real races against other colleges. The Rocky Mountain Regional Conference was hosted this year at University of Colorado Boulder campus with 11 other university’s canoes.
The team was welcomed with a loud cheer and applause from all the other schools when they announced UVU at the registration dinner as being a new university joining the competition. Many other schools were surprised to see how great of a job the UVU team did at constructing the concrete and even our own Civil Engineering students were surprised to see how well they did in the races. Among five races on Saturday April 6th, the UVU team placed 1st in the 2-person men’s slalom and 2nd place in the 4-person coed sprint consisting of 2 men and 2 women.
“It was a tremendous result for a bunch of rookies, said Amanda Bordelon, Assistant Professsor of Civil Engineering. “These students, in their first year competing pulled off an amazing feat in designing, building and then operating a cement canoe in a competition. Our students are already excited about next year!”
The UVU team named their concrete canoe “The Crackin”. Other teams in the state didn’t fare as well: Utah State’s canoe was broken in several pieces when it arrived in its trailer, and the University of Utah’s canoe was a very heavy and thick boat which was hard to carry and maneuver for them, and Wyoming’s canoe sank.
UVU’s team members included:
- Jarrod Althaus-Cressman
- Luis Chito Capunay
- Julie Hansen
- Jacob Holmes
- Brad Kitchen
- Scott Newin
- Hailey Seegmiller
- Shaylyn Talbot
- Steven Taylor
- Dustin Wall
- Lucas George - guest
- Amanda Bordelon - faculty rep