Ominous clouds gathered and thunder crashed as Black Magic was conjured on University of Utah campus Saturday afternoon.
The sky saved the downpour for evening, but student engineers would have been ready had they been inundated with water and needed a lift. They proudly displayed a shiny black canoe made of I-15-style concrete that, well, floats.Weighing in at 90 pounds, the 20-foot canoe was unveiled as the university's contender for the national competition of the American Society for Civil Engineers, to be held July 1 on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.
It is made of 80 percent concrete mixed with hollow glass and ceramic spheres in place of sand and rocks. It is reinforced with fiberglass rather than steel.
But it's an imposter. The original was damaged in a recent race that helped the university bring home a second-place win in the regional Rocky Mountain meet in Denver. South Dakota School of Mines took first place, and Brigham Young University finished third.
Nevertheless, this canoe looks promising.
"South Dakota is favored to win, but no one in the country knows how close we are," said Cortney Gibbs, co-captain of the canoe team. In the regional competition, the university lost to South Dakota, which placed fourth in nationals last year, by three out of 300 points.
"(The title) is up for grabs."
Students from 23 colleges and universities across the nation will compete in sprint and long-distance canoe races, which account for 40 percent of the scoring, and in academics with a design paper, oral presentation and display of the canoe.