Ms. Gloria Matta
Ogden College of Science and Engineering
CANOE 🛶 Fairmont, WV
WINNER 🏆 THE FIRST 🥇 PLACE!
WKU WINS CONCRETE CANOE COMPETITION AT CIVIL ENGINEERING STUDENT CHAMPIONSHIPS!
For the first time in school history, WKU’s concrete canoe team took home first place at the American Society of Civil Engineers Civil Engineering Student Championships.
Themed around the America 250 celebration, the canoe was designed and made in-house by the concrete canoe team representing the WKU ASCE’s award-winning chapter. The team placed first overall among 25 teams, while also placing high in other subcategories.
The ASCE Civil Engineering Championships are Society-wide finals for qualifying student teams from around the world in their concrete canoe, surveying and sustainable solutions competitions. The concrete canoe competition requires participants to design and make a concrete canoe.
“(Concrete canoe) is our Super Bowl, it’s our March Madness, it is the pinnacle event for students for civil engineering,” said Jason Wilson, one of ASCE’s advisers. “It’s a big deal in the civil engineering world.”
WKU has participated in concrete canoeing for almost thirty years, placing in the top five eight times and as high as third last year. The team qualified for nationals by placing first in all categories at the regional Indiana-Kentucky Student Symposium.
Leading a team of 20, co-team captains and civil engineering senior Luke Evans and May graduate Sophia Adams knew they had to persist through the hard moments.
“We’ve gotten so close (to winning) so many times,” Evans said. “We just put our mind to it that we were going to be the national champion this year, we were going to win it, and nothing was going to stop us.”
The process behind creating the canoe began in the fall semester, where the team tested mixes and practiced pouring techniques with a preliminary cement pour. They then poured their competition canoe over the course of twelve hours and cured it over 28 days in the spring.
This year, the concrete canoe team was tasked with redesigning their pouring mold after changing the canoe’s shape. After noticing water damage with the eight-year-old wood and foam mold, they decided to 3D print their mold instead.
All of the work on the canoe was done in-house thanks to WKU’s Bud Layne Lab, with 560 interlocking pieces printed to create the 3D mold for the 20-foot canoe.
The 2026 theme was first created on the way home from the competition last year, spurred by many of the team members’ connections to veterans.
“Some (loved ones) died serving our country, and we wanted to honor their sacrifice and their commitment to protecting and defending our freedom,” Evans said.
Wilson advised the team “go all in” on the theme, with the country’s 250th anniversary less than a week before their competition. The team named their canoe the USS Alliance after an important warship in the Revolutionary War and had bright white 3D-printed eagles holding up their canoe.
Alongside a display of the canoe and its construction, teams must also participate in five different races, submit a technical paper detailing canoe specifics and process and present over the canoe’s design and construction.
While Adams handled project management and communication and Evans oversaw canoe design, both paddled in races and were part of the presentation. Though paddle practice provided a break to get away, preparing for the presentation and the following questions from the judges was nerve-racking.
“Our advisors prepped us with questions that they thought we could get asked, but as always, the uncertainty of what if one of the judges had a question that we weren’t prepped on,” Adams said. “(It) definitely paid off in the end.”
After three days of competition, WKU placed first for their oral presentation and final product, as well as third overall in races and tenth for their paper.
In races, WKU placed:
Third in Men’s Slalom
Fourth in Women’s Slalom
Fourth in Men’s Sprint
Fourth in Coed Sprint
Fifth in Women’s Sprint
Adams said she began to cry when WKU was announced as first, previously thinking they hadn’t even placed.
“I just stood up, and I looked at our team, and I looked at our advisors, and everybody’s just cheering and screaming and clapping,” she said. “It was just like all of those memories of the late nights, the good and the bad all came flooding back, and it was just like, wow, we actually did it.”
Since the start of the year, the team had made jokes they wanted to place top three but not second or third.
“It always seems like a long shot, especially times throughout the year, it was like I don’t know if this can even be done,” Evans said. “Seeing it all come to fruition and hearing our name announced, time paused, and everything became worth it.”
Diego Alcaraz-Monje, Staff Reporter