2005 Miracle Yearbook

Bright sunshine over Cedar Lake formed the backdrop for the Engineering Department's 12th annual Cardboard Canoe Race, held on the afternoon of October 1. The race consisted of 25 canoes built by groups of engineering students and six canoes entered by various academic departments. Groups of three or four students in Dr. Robert Chasnov's The Engineering Profession class combined their efforts, along with the help of two upperclassman advisers who had previously been in the class,to create a canoe out of a specified amount of cardboard (60 feet of 44 inch wide) and tape (50 m long x 48 mm wide). Each team spent an average of 12 to 18 hours on assembling the canoe structure. "We were debating how strong our canoe was,and I said that I thought it could hold a person's body weight. My teammates didn't think so,so I did a handstand on the side of the canoe to prove it. Luckily it didn't break, and my teammates didn't kill me,"freshman Chris Lehman said. A third passenger was a new addition this year. Dr. Chasnov explained,"When we first started the race, about one third of the boats sank, probably because there wasn't as much upperclassman help. Recently, less than one fourth of the canoes have sunk, so we added this to make the competition more difficult, but it actually helped as there was less water coming into the middle." Canoe number 22 crossed the course,which started near the Rock and zi gged across to the ENS building, with the fastest time at 2:09. This winning canoe was built by John Stefan, Justin Wells, Matthew Parker, and Daniel Copeland. Freshman William Moad smiles hopefully across the course, secure in his Viking; helmet, while another freshman engineering student races toward the; finish. r d Daniel Copeland Cr Dr. Chasnov Justin Wells w John Norton and Ricky Young near the race finish with fellow Keith Gardner triumphantly raises his hands as he passes the canoe of Joey Runkles and Zach Flowers during tli( b freshman Courtney Reid in tow. John later spoke for the entire "King of the Lake" contest In this contest, all teams whose boats did not sink during the race took to the watel th team when he exclaimed "Grendel ruled all!" again in what Keith himself termed "a fun way to test durability." 020 Fall