NCET

The University of Nevada, Reno Concrete Canoe Team will be heading to Tuscaloosa, Alabama in June to defend their national champion title after qualifying Saturday in the Mid-Pacific Regional conference concrete canoe competition held in Reno and Sparks.

“We’re excited and happy to be going to the nationals again,” canoe team member Jorge Gonzales said. “The regionals was a very tough competition with very high-caliber canoes this year.”

Despite dominating the racing portion of the event with wins at the Sparks Marina in all five categories, the engineering students placed second in other portions of the competition: the technical paper and the presentation and fourth in the final product category. They finished second overall behind U.C. Berkeley, which was enough to qualify to compete in the nationals.

“We have a good shot at taking first at nationals, we have a strong, light, buoyant canoe,” Gonzales, president of the local student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers, said. “It’s the best racing canoe, and we have a level playing field this year as far as design. Every team has the same hull design.”

The Concrete Canoe Team will send at least nine members to the nationals, the minimum required to compete, and hopes to have 14 students, depending on funding. Gonzales said the team is seeking donations or sponsorships to help send the team to Alabama.

There were 12 teams competing in the Mid-Pac region of the ASCE canoe competition, all from California schools except for the University of Nevada, Reno. Six teams didn’t make it to the starting line after their concrete canoes failed to make it out of the construction phase.  

For more information on the concrete canoe team visit www.nevadacanoe.com or www.midpac2009.com.

Technorati Tags: e University of Nevada Reno Concrete Canoe Team, UNR, Mid-Pacific Regional Conference, Jorge Gonzales, U.C. Berkeley, American Society of Civil Engineers, Mike Levi, NCET, Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 1:48 pm and is filed under Reno-Tahoe. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.