Get the vans packed and the trailers ready. It’s time for the National Concrete Canoe Competition, and schools from around the country, continent – and world – will be headed for Florida’s Atlantic coast next month to battle for the championship.
The Florida Institute of Technology hosts nationals, June 6-8, in Melbourne, FL, and ASCE rounded out the field of 24 competing schools this week with the announcement of this year’s wildcard teams.
Back-to-back champion Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo returns looking to three-peat, having finished first in the Pacific Southwest Student Conference.
“We have a smaller team this year, so we knew it was going to be a lot of work,” said Cal Poly SLO’s project manager Mason Breipohl, S.M.ASCE, noting the team’s roster of seven students, down from last year’s 10. “Everyone’s been up to the challenge.
“We’re excited with the way regionals went. We’re happy, but we still have our eyes on the prize.”
University of Florida, runner-up each of the past two years, also qualified, winning the Southeast Student Conference.
Other familiar faces include Tongji University, hailing from Shanghai, China, and claiming back-to-back Top 5 national finishes; Virginias Conference champ Fairmont State, extending its record of consecutive national berths to 16 years; and the University of Wisconsin–Madison, which broke a tie with Clemson for the most all-time NCCC trips (23).
This year also marks the first time that a school from the India Student Conference will compete. Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, from southern India, qualified.
The national field is a mix of teams that won their student conferences this spring and a group of randomly drawn wildcard schools. To be eligible for the wildcard draw, schools must earn a requisite score on their ASCE Student Chapter annual reports and finish in the upper half of the concrete canoe competitions at their student conferences.
Brigham Young University earned a wildcard berth for the second straight year. Faculty adviser, Brett Borup, P.E., M.ASCE, said the team’s experience last summer made this year’s group “improved in almost every way.”
BYU co-captain Melissa Adams, S.M.ASCE, agreed: “Attending Nationals in 2018 as a wildcard allowed us to experience what it takes to reach the national level. We got a better idea of how much time is required to produce a quality product, obtained an understanding of how important it is to develop new methods for success, and it ultimately gave us an overall drive to perform at a national level and ensure BYU is able to attend in future years.”
The 2019 National Concrete Canoe Competition field
- Bannari Amman Institute of Technology
- Brigham Young University (wildcard)
- Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
- University of California, Los Angeles (wildcard)
- University of Cincinnati (wildcard)
- Colorado School of Mines
- Fairmont State University
- University of Florida
- Universite Laval
- Louisiana Tech University
- Michigan Technological University
- University of Minnesota–Duluth (wildcard)
- University of Minnesota–Twin Cities
- Polytechnique Montreal
- New York University, Tandon
- University of North Carolina at Charlotte
- University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown
- University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez (wildcard)
- Oklahoma State University
- University of Texas at Austin
- Tongji University
- University of Washington
- Western Kentucky University
- University of Wisconsin–Madison
Keep up with your favorite team on social media at #concretecanoe.
