The UW-Madison Concrete Canoe Team took first place overall at the 30th annual Dutch Concrete Canoe Challenge Sept. 7 to Sept. 9 in the Netherlands.

UW-Madison senior and canoe team Project Manager David Blodgett, a senior civil and environmental engineering student, said the team “couldn’t be happier” with the competition results.

The UW-Madison team was victorious in five out of the six race categories. They also received awards for best design report construction, general canoe construction and best innovation for the use of lightweight, environmentally sound concrete to achieve great stiffness and strength on the team’s 20-foot, 176-pound canoe, called the Descendent.

UW-Madison was one of 12 participating teams to attend the competition, also known as the Beton Kano Race, in Amsterdam. Eight members of the UW-Madison team and their advisor, Civil and Environmental Engineering associate professor Chin H. Wu, attended.

The team was invited to compete after winning the U.S. national championship for the fifth consecutive time in June. “It’s important that as many students get international experience as possible,” Steve Cramer, UW-Madison professor and the team’s 2007 faculty advisor, said in a University Communications release.

“The success of these students has provided them the chance to gain global experience.”

At the start of race day, Blodgett thought the day was sure to be full of “concrete canoe carnage.” UW-Madison’s canoe sustained a fair amount of damage throughout the races, according to Blodgett.

“By the time the men’s sprint came around, we had forgotten about avoiding collisions and started having a really good time just battling it out,” he said.

The sprint races were held in a narrow canal with overhead bridges. In this category UW-Madison’s canoe sped side-by-side with the team from the University of Twente.

Although it was a close battle, “We came away, with a lot of scratched concrete and some yellow paint from the other canoe, victorious,” Blodgett said.

Eight members returned home from the trip, bringing back a cultural experience and first place victory from the competition in the Netherlands.

“It was a great pleasure to take part in this super fun competition,” Blodgett said.