An Owensboro native helped lead Western Kentucky University to its first national championship in one of collegiate civil engineering’s most prestigious competitions: building and racing a concrete canoe.
Luke Evans, an Owensboro Catholic graduate and WKU senior civil engineering student, served as co-captain of WKU’s concrete canoe team as it won the 2026 Civil Engineering Student Championships, hosted by the American Society of Civil Engineers at Fairmont State University in West Virginia.
The competition challenges engineering students to design, build, and race a canoe made entirely of concrete. Teams are also judged on a technical paper, a formal presentation, and the finished product.
Approximately 200 universities from around the world participate annually, with only about 25 teams advancing to the national championships.
“This was always our goal,” Evans said. “We’ve never finished first before, so we wanted to be national champions.”
The team’s championship canoe, named USS Alliance, paid tribute to the American Revolutionary War frigate credited with firing the last naval strike of the Revolutionary War. The theme also commemorated the 250th anniversary of the United States.
Evans said the team chose the patriotic theme because many members have family who served in the U.S. military.
“Our team has a lot of family members who have fought and served our country, and we wanted to pay tribute to them on this big anniversary of our country,” Evans said.
Evans said the biggest challenge is creating a concrete mix that is both lightweight enough to float and strong enough to withstand the demands of racing.
“Our whole goal is to get our concrete density below the density of water,” he said.
The project begins each fall with months of testing concrete mixtures before students pour a practice canoe late in the semester. The final canoe is built early in the spring before regional and national competitions.
Evans transferred to WKU after spending two years playing baseball at Wabash Valley College. He said he followed the concrete canoe program before arriving in Bowling Green and knew he wanted to be part of it.
“I fell in love with this competition while I was at Wabash,” he said.
As one of two team captains, Evans helped oversee the canoe’s design while coordinating student groups responsible for structural analysis, concrete mix design, safety, technical writing, and presentations.
He said the experience taught lessons that extend well beyond engineering.
“The biggest things I learned were time management and teamwork,” Evans said. “There were a lot of late nights and early mornings. I was working with people I didn’t normally work with to produce something we were all proud of.”
WKU’s performance was highlighted by top-five finishes in every race at the national championships, an area Evans said had historically been one of the program’s weaker points. The team also earned awards for Best Technical Presentation and Best Final Product.
Competition includes men’s, women’s, and co-ed sprint races, along with a slalom event requiring paddlers to navigate around buoys on open water.
“We paddled about once or twice a week throughout the school year,” Evans said. “You have to be excellent in a lot of areas. You have to write the paper, give a presentation in front of hundreds of people, and then go out on the water and compete.”
Evans said hearing WKU announced as national champion made the long hours worthwhile.
“I thought about all the hard work that our team put in, all the dedication, late nights, and all-nighters,” he said. “A year of memories just flooded my brain.”
He also credited the program’s faculty advisers for helping guide the team throughout the year.
Looking ahead to graduation in December, Evans said he hopes his experience encourages other students interested in civil engineering.
“If any high school students are looking for a place to go and they’re interested in civil engineering, WKU is the place to go,” he said. “It’s been a fantastic experience, and I can’t imagine going anywhere else.”
