Badgers and gators performed slightly better than the Wolf Pack this weekend at the 20th Annual National Concrete Canoe Competition in Seattle.

"Overall, Nevada did an excellent job at the national level this year and our team placed in the top five in four categories: Final Product, Technical Paper, Oral Presentation, and Races," mix design engineer Kelly Doyle said. "But during the Oral Presentation, we exceeded the maximum time limit of five minutes and a large score deduction was instated."

Despite that problem, Nevada still placed third overall and this was only their second appearance at the national level. For the fifth year in a row, the University of Wisconsin-Madison team won the "America's Cup of Civil Engineering: at the American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) competition.

"This year, over 200 teams competed at the regional level, with the top 22 teams competing in the national competition," Doyle said. "With continuing support from our sponsors, the team hopes to continue to do well for years to come."

The University of Florida took second place with the blue, orange and grey, 135-pound, Gladigator, and the University of Nevada, Reno won third with the white and blue, 177-pound, Cerulean.

The three-day event, organized by ASCE and hosted by hosted by the University of Washington, was made possible by the support of founding sponsor BASF Construction Chemicals, as well as the American Concrete Institute (ACI), Baker Construction, Inc., Bentley Systems Incorporated, Holcim Inc., Norchem, ICS Penetron, Pennoni Associates Inc., Propex Concrete Systems and U.S. Silica Company.

Nevada did not have a concrete canoe program for seven years before starting a comeback in 2005. In 2006, the team placed second in their region, qualifying for the national competition for the first time in school history. This year, the team accomplished an amazing feat by beating the University of California, Berkeley, one of the most statistically competitive teams in the nation.

The Cerulean's crew included:

• Nick Maxon - Project Manager
• Christine Harms - Assistant Project Manager
• Michael Taylor - Graduate Student Advisor
• Kelly Doyle - Mix Design Engineer
• Corbin McFarlane - Hull Design Engineer
• Adam McNutt - Construction Engineer
• Chad Lyttle - Assistant Construction Engineer
• Bryan Truce - Paddling Coach
• Brian Fitzgerald - Paddler
• Kara Bymers - Paddler
• Brittany Miller - Paddler
• Matt Savage - Paddler
• Tarin Strickler - Paddler
• Dale Keller - Paddler
• Suzanne Durr - Paddler

"We are so proud of our team for the incredible effort they put into preparing for the National Concrete Canoe Competition this year," Doyle said. "We had a great experience in Seattle and hope that we can do just as well next year."