The U’s student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers battled terrible weather to host the society’s regional conference last weekend.

Engineering students competed in various areas, including building the best concrete canoes and steel bridges.

The U won the concrete canoe men’s sprint, but took no other awards.

“It didn’t go as well as we thought, but we look forward to next year,” said Ben Fowler, president of the U chapter.

Fowler said he was impressed with students who competed in the canoe competition.

“There was so much rain, and I even saw snow, and these guys from schools from all over were stripping down to their shorts and jumping in the water like it was the middle of summer,” he said.

Next year, the U chapter will host the national competition in steel bridge building, and plans are already in place for U students to start building bridges this June for the 2006 competition.

This year, only two of 10 bridges placed at the regionals and earned the right to move on to national competition. Neither were from the U.

Sheena McFarland