News Release

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April 21, 2005

Boise State Civil Engineering Students Win Overall Title and Six of Eight First Places In Concrete Canoe Contest

Boise State civil engineering students pose with their concree canoe, The Black Pearl, after winning the regional contest.

A concrete canoe that Boise State University civil engineering students spent hundreds of hours designing, building, refining and paddling swept six of eight categories, including the overall award, at the Pacific Northwest regional contest held in Butte and Helena, Mont., earlier this month. The Boise State team now advances to the 18^th annual national competition at Clemson University in Clemson, S.C., June 25-27.

This is the second time in three years that Boise State’s student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has won the overall award in the concrete canoe contest, held as part of the Pacific Northwest regional conference of ASCE. The Boise State team dominated this year’s competition, winning the aesthetics, women’s slalom/endurance, women’s sprint, men’s slalom/endurance, coed sprint and overall awards. The BSU team also took second place in the men’s sprint after being edged out of first by the Oregon Institute of Technology by only 10 seconds.

Student teams from more than a dozen Northwest universities participated in this year’s regional contest, hosted by Montana Tech and Carroll College. The annual contest requires student teams to design a canoe made from a concrete mix. Competitors must develop a concrete mix design, write a design paper, keep track of all efforts in a design journal and present their design at the ASCE conference. The contest culminates with canoe races, held this year at No Wake Lake in Helena, Mont.

Boise State’s winning boat, The Black Pearl, is 20½ feet long and weighs about 190 pounds, said T.J. Bird, a senior civil engineering major and co-captain of Boise State’s student team. Besides the work involved in designing and constructing the boat, students also practiced their paddling skills at training sessions held each week at ParkCenter Pond

“The races were really exciting,” said Bird. “A couple of the canoes — from Oregon State and Montana Tech — broke apart in the water. The University of Idaho’s canoe got swamped.”

Bird added he’s looking forward to the national competition, which will features team from the University of Florida, Texas A&M, Michigan Tech, and other powerhouse engineering schools.

BSU’s winning team members include: women’s sprint, Brenda Morris and Kristi Unholz; women’s slalom/endurance, Morris and Meghan Malloy; men’s sprint, George Van Horn and Aaron Trimm, co-captain; men’s slalom/endurance, Jeremy Brown and Eric Waag; and coed sprint, Unholz, Carina Castaneda, Brown, and Waag.

The team’s senior adviser is Van Horn, co-captain of the 2004 team, and faculty adviser is civil engineering professor Joseph Sener. Student helpers include Alex Hammond, Mona Vu, and Brandon Logan. Stephen Affleck, chair of BSU’s civil engineering department, also attended the regional competition.

More information on the upcoming concrete canoe national contest and a picture of the Boise State team and The Black Pearl is at concretecanoe.org

Contact: T.J. Bird, concrete canoe team co-captain (208) 859-0261, tjbird@mail.boisestate.edu

Media Contact: Janelle Brown, communications and marketing, (208) 426-1790, jbrown2@boisestate.edu

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Last reviewed on Thursday, December 22, 2005