Florida Tech Anchors Top Ten at National Concrete Canoe Competition

The student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) concrete canoe team traveled to the University of Evansville in Evansville, Ind., June 16-18 to compete for the ASCE Concrete Canoe National Championship. The team finished in the top 10, with Andrew Bankert as captain.

The team’s standings included second place in Men’s Final Sprints; third place in the Men’s Slalom/Endurance Race; and fifth place in Women’s Final Sprints and the Women’s Slalom/Endurance Race. The team finished ninth overall with 23 teams competing.

Team member and vice president of the ASCE Florida Tech student chapter, Stephen Craig, said, “A national championship was our goal and we gave it our all and held nothing back. Unfortunately, it didn’t end the way we hoped it would. Nonetheless, the amount of effort and heart put into this project was worthy of a first place finish and we hold our heads high.”

Advisers to the team included faculty members Paul Cosentino, Gen. Ralph Locurcio, Edward Kalajian and Ashok Pandit, and staff members Ed Martin and Stephanie Hopper.

Last March, at the Southeast Regional competition, the concrete canoe team took first place overall, winning first in the concrete canoe final product, concrete canoe design paper, and men’s sprint and men’s endurance races, second in women’s endurance and co-ed sprint and third place in the women’s sprint.

Participating universities included first place winner California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; as well as University of Wisconsin, Madison; University of California, Berkeley; Clemson University; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne and University of Evansville.