Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - Despite winds over 20 miles per hour and chilling temperatures dipping below 30 degrees, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) chapter hosted the Midwest regional concrete canoe competition at Blackhawk Lake Recreation Area in Highland on April 22 and 23.

Riding in their canoe named "Nemo," UWP placed first overall and advances to the 18th annual national competition to be hosted by Clemson University in Clemson, S.C. from June 24-27. Some of the other schools that UWP will be competing against at nationals include "big names" like UW-Madison, Texas A&M, Michigan Tech, West Point, University of California, Berkley and Clemson University. It is the first time in the history of UWP that the concrete canoe team has qualified for the national competition.

Commented Frederick Clark, one of the ASCE competition coordinators, "We are proud that Wisconsin is being represented by two schools at nationals this year." Added Teresa Brunner, ASCE president and fellow competition coordinator, "Justin Dahlberg, Clark and I spent hundreds of man-hours organizing the competition. We learned an enormous amount of valuable information and gained priceless experience in the areas of project and time management, interpersonal relationships, networking, delegation and logistics.

Aside from the hours spent organizing the competition, ASCE members put in countless hours of work to finish their canoe. Not only did they have to make the seemingly impossible happen by constructing a mixture of concrete that floats, they must follow a 79-page rules document. "There were many other team members that helped with the design and construction of the canoe. Without them, the canoe wouldn't have been possible. We had such a great show of support," said Samantha Hockerman, an ASCE concrete canoe co-chair.

The winner of the competition is determined by both academic and race events. Teams must submit a design paper, give an oral presentation describing the project, and are also graded on the aesthetics and durability of the canoe.

The five race events, which account for 30 percent of the overall score, include women's endurance, men's endurance, women's sprint, men's sprint and co-ed sprint race. The UWP students who raced in the women's endurance were Hockerman and Jackie Eckels. Matt Appel and Dan Francois paddled to victory in the men's endurance race. Sarah Curran and Candice Oppitz won the women's sprint race with teammates Matt Rynish and Francois finishing first in the men's sprint race. The combined efforts of Hockerman, Eckels, Appel and Ben Hunter, helped UWP win the co-ed sprint race. "All of the paddling teams won their races and the women's endurance team beat every other men's endurance team but our own. This is the second year in a row that that has happened," commented Hockerman. Added Brunner, "I believe that UW-Platteville performed better as a team than the competing schools. UWP was prepared, and it was evident that the canoe team had worked very hard to stand up to the larger universities. After spending 11 months working to plan the regional competition, I was thrilled to be able to both show the other schools what UW-Platteville had to offer in terms of a hosting university, as well as cheer the home team on its way to nationals."

Founded in 1852, ASCE represents more than 137,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America's oldest national engineering society. To find out more about the competition visit the ASCE website at http://www.asce.org/inside/nccc2005/index.cfm.

Contact: Samantha Hockerman, ASCE, (608) 348-3564,hockerms@uwplatt.edu Teresa Brunner, ASCE president, (608) 778-5266, brunnete@uwplatt.edu Prepared by: Rachael Lehr, Public Relations, (608) 342-1194,lehrr@uwplatt.edu