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UC Concrete Canoe Team Makes Waves at Ohio State Senate

   With Ohio State Senate President Senator Bill Harris looking on, a resolution was presented to the team and their advisors, G.A. Rassati and Jim Swanson, faculty members from the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Cincinnati.

L-R: State Sen. Tom Niehaus and Gary Cates; team members Becky Halman, Josh Trauger, Jesse Limbert, Kaitlyn Sarmento and Breana Roth. Standing in back are faculty members Jim Swanson and G.A. Rassati, with senators Bill Seitz and Eric Kearney at right.

Rassati shared how much the recognition meant to the team. A UC team had not made the national competition in 18 years. This year’s team set their goals on first winning the regional competition and then making the top 10 at the national competition. Achieving the latter goal was further complicated by the fact that the competition took place in Alabama concurrent with UC’s All-University Commencement, so the team’s racing portion would have to be carried by the underclassmen while the seniors participated in commencement activities in Cincinnati. Co-captains Josh Trauger and Breana Roth left the competition after the technical portions and flew back to Cincinnati to walk in commencement (and speak in commencement, in Breana’s case).

“First of all, it is quite an honor to be here,” Rassati told the senators in Columbus. “I wish I could take much credit for this, but in reality all credit should go to our students and now former students — especially Breana Roth and Josh Trauger as the captains — and Becky [Halman], Kaitlyn [Sarmento] and Jesse [Limbert], who are representing the whole concrete canoe team here. They started working on the project 12 months ago, and early on they set the goal of winning the regional conference to qualify for the national competition. Once that had been accomplished, they set off with the dream goal of making it among the top 10 teams in the nation.”

Sen. Eric Kearney (D – 9th District) asked Rassati what makes a concrete canoe float.

“I noted that most large-size ships are made of steel, which is about three times heavier than concrete, so proper design and attention to detail can make many unexpected things happen,” Rassati explained. “We concluded by presenting Sen. Kearney with a Concrete Canoe Team shirt, and we were presented with a signed resolution.”

Rassati also told the senators, “It is nice when, with hard work and dedication, all goals can be attained. We are particularly proud to have achieved fourth place nationwide in the most technical part of the competition, the design paper. This is proof that our civil and environmental engineering students, through coursework and cooperative education experience, are among the best undergraduates in the country.”

Read More About the 2009 UC Concrete Canoe Team

UC Civil Engineering Concrete Canoe Team Makes Top 10 at Nationals
They made a Herculean team effort and achieved all their stretch goals, coming in tenth at the National Concrete Canoe Competition.

UC Engineering Students Race Concrete Canoe in National Competition in Alabama
UC civil engineering students participate in concrete canoe competition and commencement simultaneously, proving that hardships are nothing new to this rock-solid team.