A team of ISU civil and construction engineers finished in the top ten at the 2003 ASCE/MBT National Concrete Canoe Competition.

The competition was held at Drexel University in Philadelphia, said Tim Ellis, team adviser and associate professor of civil and construction engineering.

The team competed with 23 other colleges from across the country on June 20—22, according to the Web site, www.masterbuilders.com.

The students were in competition for $9,000 in scholarship prizes, according to the Master Builders Inc. Web site. Iowa State placed ninth out of 24 teams, Ellis said.

“The competition consists of two main parts — academics and racing,” said Elizabeth Kash, team member and graduate assistant in civil and construction engineering. The academic part of the competition is based on the finished canoe structure, a technical paper, a business presentation and a question and answer session, Ellis said.

“The team scored all of the points in the [question and answer] category,” he said.

Significant changes in rules were a problem in this year’s competition, Ellis said.

According to the Web site, the new rules required students to use ordinary sand as 15 percent of their concrete mixture and recycled coal fly ash as 20 percent. In the past, the only requirement was that Portland cement, a mixture that doesn’t hold as much water, be used as the binding material, said Mike Roth, graduate assistant in civil and construction engineering, and team member.

Nathan Phillips, co-chair of the team and senior in civil engineering, said this was the most challenging part of the competition.

“It was hard because it forced us to make it [the canoe] heavier and use weaker concrete,” he said.

The canoe, named Twisted Sister, is 19.5 feet long and half an inch thick, Phillips said. It weighs around 200 pounds, he said.

As the team excelled in the technical portion of the contest, their paddling skills hurt them, Phillips said.

“For the racing portion there are five races,” Kash said.

There is an endurance race for men and women separately, a sprint race for men and women separately, and a coed race, Ellis said.

“We got no points during the race,” he said.

With no points in the race and all points possible in the technical portion, the ISU team placed first in the Midwest Regional Competition, which entitled them to a spot in the national competition, Ellis said.

“This was only the third time that Iowa State has participated at a national level. The first was in 1992, and the team placed 13th overall. The second was in 2002 where we placed 18th overall,” Kash said.

“Over 200 teams compete nationwide with the top 24 competing at Nationals. We’re very excited with our top ten finish.”

The two co-chairs, Phillips and Jamie Reckinger, senior in civil engineering, led the team through two semesters of hard work, Phillips said.

Next year’s co-chairs, identical twins Rob and Ryan Haaland, juniors in civil and construction engineering, will lead the team in getting started very soon for next year’s competition, Ellis said.

“This experience allowed us to pull all of our knowledge together that we’ve learned in our classes and apply it to a real world problem with restrictions and time constraints,” Kash said. “Honestly, it all comes down to teamwork — being able to work with a group of people and keep them focused and excited. The leadership skills gained are invaluable.”

“The department is really happy about their success,” Ellis said. “They did an outstanding job and represented the department well.”