Saints Place in Top Three in Concrete Canoe Competitions
At the Pacific Northwest ASCE Student Chapter in Vancouver, BC
In early April, seven members of Carroll College ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) traveled to Vancouver, BC for the regional concrete canoe competition. The trip was the culmination of six months of planning, testing, and constructing the canoe, and entailed a full weekend of displaying and presenting the canoe, followed by a day of racing and rigorous trials alongside eight other colleges. The Carroll canoe performed extremely well, placing top three in all five races alongside schools such as the University of British Columbia and University of Washington. The team secured first place in the women's slalom, second in the men's slalom, co-ed sprint, and women's sprint, and third place in the men's sprint race. The weekend culminated with an adventure trying to get home, when the hotel valets got in a slight accident with one vehicle and lost the keys to the other, but eventually everyone made it home safe and sound!
Dr. Recep Birgul, the faculty advisor for the ASCE Student Chapter, mentored the students in their preparation. Dr. Ron Breitmeyer, who is completing his first year as a faculty member in Engineering at Carroll, drove to Canada with the students.
I was fortunate enough to attend the ASCE Pacific Northwest Student Symposium with our engineering students for the Concrete Canoe Competition. This is really a student-led and driven activity and Carroll can be very proud of our team. Our students built a canoe that performed competitively with (and in some ways out-performed) those from larger teams from University of Washington and University of British Columbia. Overall, the trip was very rewarding and educational and I am truly proud to have been a small part of it. ~ Dr. Ron Breitmeyer
Concrete Canoe is my favorite part of Carroll Engineering. It's an amazing opportunity to meet and have fun with other engineering students from across the Pacific Northwest. It also proves the value of a Carroll education that a team of eight from Helena, MT is able to match and exceed the capabilities of teams five times our size. Two of my favorite memories from the weekend are seeing the huge smiles on the ladies' faces after they won the women's slalom, and looking back after completing the coed sprint and realizing that the school we were racing had sunk themselves trying to catch up. ~ David Wassmuth, Senior
