CEE's Concrete Canoe team finished 10th among a field of 23 teams at 25th annual ASCE National Competition, held June 14-16, at the University of Nevada, Reno.
CEE placed 5th in Technical Paper, 11th in Presentation, 16th in Final Product, and 10th overall in races. See complete results below.
There is no way around it: Canoe had hoped to finish higher.
In the inevitable analysis that followed, team members believe that having to rebuild GraffiCAL only 6 weeks before Mid-Pac took its toll, both physically and emotionally.
The mix of the initial canoe did not include fibers and this resulted in a product that had significant shrinkage cracks. When the team tested the canoe in the fall, they did not think the shrinkage posed a significant problem. But come spring, they reconsidered. They didn't want to take the chance of the canoe breaking in competition.
"We learned that testing on a small scale is not entirely representative of something as large as a canoe," says Frank Qian, canoe project manager.
In hindsight, team members believe that the 2010 break of Ex Calce Liberatus may have caused them to be too conservative.
"The biggest thing I learned from this whole experience is the heart of the team, " says Frank, "Next year, you're going to see some things from Cal Canoe that no one has ever seen before!
"We're going all out."