Team effort yields THREE-PEAT championship
 t took members of the UW-Madison Concrete Canoe
Team more than 3,000 hours to prepare themselves and their canoe for
the 21-team national competition, June 25 though 27 in Clemson, South
Carolina. In just 72 hours, the contest was over—and the two-time
defending national champion Wisconsin team became the first in American
Society of Civil Engineers National Concrete Canoe Competition history
to earn three consecutive wins.
The team’s 175-pound, 21.5-foot canoe, Taliesin—a
nod to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Spring Green home—topped Clemson’s
202-pound, 21.4-foot boat and Michigan Tech’s 175-pound, 20-foot
canoe to earn a $5,000 scholarship from Degussa Admixtures, Inc.
“Our students are very proud and excited, and
deserve our congratulations,” says Professor Steve
Cramer. “This is an incredibly competitive event. All of the
students in this competition pour their hearts and souls into designing
and building the best boat possible. So it’s fun, it’s educational—but
they are also very serious about it.”
Although races are the competition’s most visible
and physically grueling aspect, they count for only 25 percent of a
team’s total score. Teams also submit a written paper (25 percent)
and participate in an oral presentation and question-and-answer session
(25 percent) with judges. In addition, both judges and students evaluate
each boat in a number of categories, including appearance, materials,
and compliance with the rules (25 percent).
The UW-Madison team took second in the race category,
posting second-place finishes in the women’s endurance race, the
men’s sprint and the women’s sprint, and first-place finishes
in the men’s endurance race and co-ed sprint. The team’s
design paper took first place, its oral presentation earned fifth place,
and its final product (the canoe itself) received second place.
Although heat, humidity and sometimes rain were race
factors, team members were most nervous about the oral presentation,
says Dave Chmielewski, a senior and the team’s
new co-chair. Four team members have five minutes in which to present
whatever information they deem necessary—including team management
and structure, canoe materials choices, and boat shape—to the
judges. “After the five minutes is done, the six judges can ask
anyone who was in the presentation anything that we did this year,”
he says. “We can get our presentation down, we can practice paddling
so we’re confident in the races, we can spend time finishing the
boat and writing and rewriting the paper, but the Q&A is the most
unknown part of the competition.”
As you might expect, all eyes were on the returning
two-time champions—but rather than intimidate the 18 team members
who attended the competition, the attention inspired them, says Chmielewski.
“Since we had won the past two years, other teams wanted to see
what we do so they can achieve the success we have,” he says.
“I enjoyed seeing the more inexperienced people on our team notice
that other teams were looking at us. I think it made them excited to
be involved in coming years.”
That excitement and continuity is what originally
made the team great, says Linda Vanevenhoven,
a senior who designed the canoe’s hull, paddled in the races and
helped to give the oral presentation. “I feel extremely lucky
to have been able to be a contributing member of the team for our last
three consecutive national championships,” she says. “I
give the most credit to the students involved on the team before I was.
They were the ones with the vision to bring UW-Madison’s team
to a new level at the national competition and had the motivation to
begin our successes. This year’s team just had to keep up the
good work!”
Senior Jaime Kurten co-chaired
the group. She says one secret of the team’s success was involving
as many team members as possible. In the process, she created invaluable
connections. “I’ve made some really great friends through
doing this, but also have established relationships with professors
and other faculty members that I may have not gotten the opportunity
to do otherwise,” she says.
Chmielewski agrees, and says it’s rewarding
for team members not only to work hard together, but to enjoy the benefits
of their hard work. “There were parts when we were all business,”
he says, speaking of the competition. “But there were plenty of
times when we just had a good time. One evening there was a dinner followed
by a DJ and dancing. Of the 21 teams there, we were one of the last
groups to leave. By the end, we had all of our people up and dancing.”
Now that fall is here, however, the team is ready
to get back to work. “‘Three-peat’ to me, as one of
the people in charge this year, means the pressure is still on,”
says Chmielewski. “There’s only one place to go from the
top—and that’s down. We don’t want to do that.”
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