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by We are proud and very pleased to report that we won our fifth national title in San Diego at the ASCE/MBT National Concrete Canoe Competition with our boat called "SURVIVOR.". With only two newcomers, and several veteran teams back after missing the last year or two, this was the most experienced group in the fourteen year history of the competition. We made good on our promise to “outsmart, outperform and out paddle” our competition by placing consistently high (top five) in all events (see Score Sheets). Clemson's 3CT, the defending champion, finished a close second followed by the team from Oklahoma State University (OSU). Laval, the Canadian National Champion, finished fourth. South Dakota Tech rounded out the top five. Vital statistics, as well as photographs of the boats and displays showcased by all of this year's national contenders, are now available (2001 Vital Statistics - Displays and Boats). Please feel free to download a copy of our winning design report (PDF Download). We qualified for the National Competition by winning the Southeast Regional. This year's national competition, hosted by San Diego State University, was held in San Diego, California, June 14th-16th, 2001. The races were held on Lake Murray. We got off to a good start prior to the on-site events by placing first in the design paper category. The top five finishers in this category were UAH, South Dakota Tech, Clemson, OSU, and Laval. We worked very hard to raise the funds that we needed to send our paddling team to San Diego a few days early.
When they got there, the team practiced hard. But, they were able to relax and take time to enjoy the city and surrounding area.
Some of our team members took side trips to places like Mexico and Catalina Island.
On the first day of the competition in San Diego, our display booth attracted considerable attention, and we managed to place third in this category.
Clemson took this event with a magnificent portrayal of their entry christened "Good Fortune." Their display revolved around the hull of a pirate ship and featured an authentic looking steering wheel, an aquarium with fish, a treasure chest with jewels, lanterns, skulls, a cannon ball perforating the wall (to the left), water spewing from the damaged area, and a spring loaded floor.
We shouldn't say but we kind of enjoyed seeing one of our faculty advisors, Dr. Gilbert, cringe as his ten year old daughter, Ali, kept telling him over and over again that she liked the pirate display best. We knew that Clemson had a winner when Ali announced at dinner that she would have voted for us but only because Dr. Gilbert was her Dad. Oklahoma State did an outstanding job promoting their effort to inject mold their canoe called "Revolution."
Drexel finished fourth,
followed by the team from NC State.
Some members of our team went to the icebreaker dinner party that evening. But when they returned, they found the rest of the team hard at work and joined the crew.
We had transported all of the lights and cabinets in our hotel rooms, and all of the flashlights in our possession, to the parking lot to ready "SURVIVOR" for final product judging. Team members finally hit the hay about 4:00 a.m.
Our 8:45 a.m. visual presentation on Friday went pretty well considering that we had had only three hours of sleep. We placed fifth in this category.
The top five finishers in this category were the University of Minnesota, Colorado School of Mines, OSU, Clemson, and UAH. Unfortunately, we were very busy during the rest of the day and didn't get a picture of the top three schools winning efforts. But our understanding is that Minnesota used both male and female molds to construct their boat, and vacuum bagged their composite system to ensure good bonding. CSM experimented with an inverted keel while OSU highlighted their injection molding process. Clemson, who delivered immediately before us, bestowed "Good Fortune" by throwing gold bullion to the audience.
Things picked up for Team UAH later in the day after the judges commended us on our final product.
But Laval, the Canadian National Champion, rivaled our effort and managed to squeeze out the extra points that it took to place first in this category with their entry called "Apocalypse." South Dakota Tech's "Storm Chaser" was an absolutely beautiful boat that placed a well-deserved third in the final product category.
Minnesota placed fourth,
followed by Clemson.
Our faculty advisors tell us that these were the best products ever displayed at any national competition and our hats go off to Laval for a job well done! After performing a float test,
and checking our equipment,
we took a group photo at SDSU.
Then, it was off to bed. Eyes rolled as wake up calls came at 3:30 a.m. on Saturday in an effort to stake out a good spot on the beach.
Remarkably, we all arrived at Lake Murray promptly at the assigned time - 4:15 a.m. After the fog lifted and team members began to recover from their rude awakening, we took another group photo (of our "survivors").
Then, our paddling team readied themselves for competition.
As mentioned previously, our men's slalom/long distance and sprint team won their events.
But Clemson managed to score more points in the water overall.
Their women's team beat nearly all of the men's times on the slalom/distance course and set a new national record in the women's sprint race.
Overall, Clemson's performance in the water was nothing short of world class! They continue to be the most formidable powerhouse afloat and will be extremely hard to beat next year. We were pleased when "SURVIVOR" performed as billed in our design report and emerged from the competition unscathed.
After a long day at the races, we had time to take a final group photo.
Rekindling a prior lost tradition, and just to see if it made a difference, several teams stuck around to trade boats.
That evening, the banquet was outstanding. But our win made it even better.
According to a long standing UAH Chapter tradition, our president-elect, Todd Watts, collected the trophy.
And, while Todd did what new president's do best (taking advantage of photo opportunities and mingling with bigwigs), we took a group shot of the rest of the team.
Following the banquet, we filled the cup with champagne and passed it around for all to share in our victory. Before leaving the Marriott in Mission Valley, we took a final photograph of our graduating seniors and the alumni that attended the banquet. We thank them all for performing so well as TEAM UAH!
Those of us that flew back to Huntsville had quite a scare when we learned that our ground crew had a pretty close call on Sunday night on their trip back through New Mexico. One of the tires on our trailer blew causing it to sway. When the other three tires went out too, there was no return. The trailer went so far out of control that all of the attachment straps holding our display and props pulled out of the walls.
The 1000 lb wooden box that "SURVIVOR" was in burst through the back doors, damaging the trailer to the point where repair is questionable. Although the box was in pieces after compressing our canoe longitudinally, the only damage that the boat sustained was a slight permanent deformation in the gunwales.
The ground crew finally made it back to UAH on Thursday, June 21st, where they were welcomed by a cheering crowd and the UAH pep band. Andre Danson, last year's UAH ASCE Student Chapter Vice-President, presented our first place trophy to university president, Dr. Frank Franz, on the steps of Tech Hall. Then we went inside to partake of the well-deserved refreshments that our administration was kind enough to provide.
In closing our national report, this was one of the most exciting competitions ever. SDSU did a super job as our host and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts for working so hard to make things right. The judges were very critical. But, in our opinion, they were fair in judging our efforts. In retrospect, they must have had a very difficult time scoring efforts from the best of the best. We owe a debt of gratitude to the all those who organized the competition, especially the members of the CNCCC, and extend our heartfelt thanks to them on everyone's behalf. We can't thank ASCE and Master Builders enough for giving us the opportunity to compete at the national level and thank our competitors for giving us such intense and formidable competition. Our hats go off to Clemson and OSU for fueling our efforts during the past year and commend them for bringing this competition to a new level. International competitors like Laval and past national champions, such as South Dakota Tech and Berkeley, made this competition more exciting for us and it was an honor and a pleasure to face off against them. Make no mistake, we plan to keep a watchful eye on Minnesota, Drexel, Western Kentucky, and CSM because we know that they have the potential to place top five in Wisconsin.
Senator Jeff Sessions was kind enough to acknowledge our win in the U.S. Congressional Record. Needless to say, we are already looking forward to 2002 and hope to see all of you again in Wisconsin. Please, don't forget to keep in touch. The more that we do for each other, the easier it will be to secure the support that we all need to compete. |
Interestingly enough, five of the seven schools that Dr. Gilbert
cited as most likely to place
among the top five prior to the competition actually did so (see his