UC Civil Engineering Concrete Canoe Team Makes Top 10 at Nationals

The University of Cincinnati team really “went the distance” this year in more ways than one. Some of the team members made several laps of the Cincinnati-Tuscaloosa distance.

With the National Concrete Canoe Competition finals taking place on the same weekend as UC’s All-University Commencement, the team’s seniors had to fly back up to Cincinnati during the competition to walk in commencement, then fly back down to Alabama to help bring the canoe back to Cincinnati. Well, the team went the distance, but the canoe wasn’t quite able to make the last leg of the trip intact.

At the beginning of the season, UC’s team set a goal for itself to make the national competition, even though a team from UC had not done so in 18 years. Then UC won the regional competition and all of a sudden its dream goal of competing at nationals was not just “mission possible,” it was “mission accomplished.”

So they set about setting a new goal. Their dream goal became to make it into the top 10 schools in the nation.

The UC team fared well overall, but the competition was not all smooth sailing says associate professor of civil engineering G. A. Rassati, the team’s advisor.

“Well, we ran the female and male endurance races under driving rain, with interspersed thunder,” says Rassati. “After that, the canoe failed quite unexpectedly, and thus we could not complete the sprint races. Had the canoe not failed, we might have placed even higher up in the standings.”

The UC team finished the women's endurance and the men's endurance, but a 1-by-2" hole had formed in the center side of the canoe and the canoe filled with water. The team patched the hole and surrounding area in hopes that the canoe would survive the rest of the races.

Team co-captain Breana Roth says that while the women were preparing for the women's sprint race, the duct tape began to "pop."

“Then all of the sudden the women heard the reinforcement ripping and before they knew it the canoe had broken in half and the two women were in the water each with one half of the canoe. The women then swam the canoe ashore,” Roth says.

“At this point the team was very disappointed and sad that the canoe had broken,” Roth adds. “Kaitlyn Sarmento, another team member, told me, ‘We were devastated and feeling as though we let the graduating seniors down by not bringing the canoe home in one piece.’" 
She doesn’t seem too disappointed with the performance of the undergraduates, however.

“I feel the team is in good hands,” Roth says. “They all have learned a lot over the past few days and have a lot of research, testing and work to do to in order to make it again to Nationals next year.”

“Nationals was a great experience and a great time to learn what other top teams are doing,” she says. “Wednesday through Friday went well while I was in Tuscaloosa. We traveled on Wednesday, had our product display on Thursday, and then our presentation on Friday. Josh [Trauger], Dane [Brown] and I left Friday evening to return to Cincinnati.”

Because the final standings are not determined by the results of the actual races alone, the teams do not know who has won the overall competition until the final banquet. The competition outcome is determined based on a combination of the racing results, plus a technical design paper, a formal oral presentation and the end product—the final racing canoe and project display, which were scored on aesthetics and visual presentation.

“The students were quite brought down by the failure of the canoe, especially the girls who were in it at the time, and so we went to the banquet with low expectations,” says Rassati. Making the top 10 in the nation was another dream come true for this year's team.

“The excellent design paper that our team prepared allowed us to place fourth in the nation in the most technical aspect of the competition, with the University of California at Berkeley leading the pack," says Rassati.

And here was the final ranking of the 2009 ASCE National Concrete Canoe Competition:

1. University of California, Berkeley 
2. École de technologie supérieure 
3. California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo 
4. University of Florida 
5. University of Nevada, Reno 
6. New Mexico State University 
7. Université Laval 
8. California State Polytechnic University, Pomona 
9. University of Alabama, Huntsville 
10. University of Cincinnati

“Overall, the 2008–2009 concrete canoe team reached all the goals that they had set 12 months ago, winning the regional competition, getting awards at the national competition, and placing in the top 10 schools in the nation,” says advisor Rassati. “This time our main goal at nationals was to learn so we could improve in the years to come. Additionally, there are great hopes for the future, since most of the concrete canoe team members are freshmen, sophomores and pre-juniors, who experienced what it takes to succeed on the national scene.”<

“The points that we gained with the design paper allowed us to reach our dream goal, i.e., we made it among the top 10 schools nationwide in this competition,” says Rassati. “The president-elect of the American Society of Civil Engineers was in attendance and distributed the awards.”

Roth also points out, “This year we were told we were ‘definitely the surprise of the competition’ and I hope next year they can prove UC will be a strong competitor for years to come.”

“At the banquet and during the races there was already a lot of talk about what to do for next year’s competition, and I would not be surprised if the team started working on it this week or next week,” Rassati adds.

ASCE Release

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.

The team members would like to thank their rock-solid supporters:

Brogan & Wolfe
Cincinnati Ready Mix Concrete
Decorative Concrete Store
Dr. GA Rassati
Dr. Mike Baseheart
Evans Landscaping
Fastsigns 
Global Manufacturing
Hydration Kontrol Company
Increte Systems
Jim Barnhart
Julie Cromwell
Knauf Polystrene
Poraver  
Scherzinger Drilling Co.
THP Limited