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Rustler Women's Crew are Provincial Champs

October 15 eleven members of the Lakeland College Rustler Crew traveled to Calgary to compete in the University of Calgary Head Races and the Alberta University Rowing Association (AURA) Championships.

In the first event of the day the novice mens quad finished second to the University of Calgary’s A crew in a close race while beating the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary’s B crew. With a time of 20:33, the crew of Morgan Husereau, David Stirling, Tyler Mullen, and Richard Ellens, were only 25 seconds behind the winners in the 5 km head race.

In the second launch the novice womens quad won their event with a time of 25:51 over crews from the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary. The Crew of Lindsay Stanko, Megan McAndrew, Caitlin January and Megan Arnemann had to row a very clean race in challenging conditions with choppy water to get to the podium.

April Stanko and Dianne Philipsen racing in the Senior Women’s double faced the most difficult water conditions of the day. With waves verging on white caps, officials were forced to cancel the singles race and after a coaches meeting it was decided to allow the doubles race to proceed. Despite the conditions the ladies managed a respectable row finishing fifth out of seven boats.

The highlight of the day was the AURA Championships which featured 1500m lane races with varsity crews facing off in a head to head format. This was a new type of race for the Rustler Crew involving a shorter distance, but with much higher stroke rates and increased intensity. In the novice womens 8+ event the 3 boat final involved crews from the University of Alberta, University of Calgary and Lakeland College. In what turned out to be the closest race of the day the Lakeland crew of Lindsay Stanko, Megan McAndrew, Megan Arnemann, Caitlin January, April Stanko, Dianne Philipsen, Jennelle Russell and a recruit from the U of A raced neck and neck for the entire 1500m with the other 2 boats. With a late surge the Rustler women took the lead in the last five strokes to edge the University of Calgary by less than a second.

Overall the day was a huge success for Lakeland College who made their mark as a force to be reckoned with as a result of their strong showing in the head races and in the AURA Championships.

On a special note coach Peter Walsh was approached by the University of Alberta coaches to recruit Lakeland College Rowers for composite crews at the Western Canadian University Rowing Championships in Fort Langley BC Oct 23. If this works out it will be a great opportunity for some of the members of Rustler Crew to take their rowing to the next level.