WKU wins first-ever concrete canoe national championship
FAIRMONT, WV. – WKU Athletics runs on the slogan ‘Champions Climb Here,’ but that isn’t limited to sports programs over on the Hill.
One team competed late last week and rowed all the way back to town with a national championship trophy.
“It was just like as we were walking up there to go and get the award, all of the late nights and bad times and all the good were all like flooding back and it just made it all worth it,” WKU concrete canoe co-captain Sophia Adams said.
WKU had floated around the top spot in recent years, but 2026 saw the breakthrough.
The Tops came away first overall in the 2026 Concrete Canoe Competition, held annually by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
“It’s the ASCE Cup. It is the premier project for ASCE,” faculty advisor Jason Wilson said.
“If we’re going to equate that to something, that’s the Super Bowl, that’s March Madness, and here we are, Western Kentucky University, competing with a lot of power five schools, a lot of R1 schools with master’s programs and Ph.D. programs and we’re undergraduate only.”
Western’s canoe team was made up of roughly 20 members who began the process back at the start of the 2025 fall semester.
After rounding out the previous year in third place, the group was determined to bring home the top prize.
One reason they were able to win this time around was thanks to creative construction. By using a 3D printer, multiple parts of the presentation were crafted, turning many heads.
“These 3D printers are only $500 to $1000 bucks a piece, which in the grand scheme of things, it’s pretty cheap. So, any kid at home in their bedroom could do the same thing they did with enough time,” faculty advisor Tyler Baker said.
Once the concrete settled, the aesthetic design process began, and with America’s 250th birthday on the horizon, the choice was clear.
“We have a lot of teammates that have family members who have fought for our country, fought for the freedoms we have today, and that’s something that we wanted to pay tribute to. So, it meant quite a bit to us,” co-captain Luke Evans said.
After all factors were combined, the Tops impressed the judges in four separate categories to capture the program’s first-ever national title.
“This is a building block project that’s been going on for over 30 years,” Wilson said. “Every year, we contribute, you know, adding on to the next team.”
“It’s not just for this team, they’re very special and I’m very proud of this team, but it’s over 30 years of students that have put forth in this effort to build this program to where it is today.”
