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Rowers Finish Second at Western Canadian Championships

If you see 9 women walking around the campus tomorrow looking a little tired but walking just a few inches above the ground that would be our Novice womens 8+ who rowed to 2nd place in a six boat final close behind a crew from the University of Victoria at the Western Canadian University Rowing Championships. They did this despite a few challenges including popping a rigger pin, hot-seating through their “break” and an emergency “on the water” pee break.

The short story is they won their qualifying heat surviving pushes from UBC and Simon Fraser U and waking up everybody who had never heard of Lakeland College. Then through a change in scheduling had to turn around and row back to the start for their final (UVic had been off the water for 30 min since their heat). In the final UVic got a great start on our girls and never gave it up despite several pushes from the Rustler Crew. It quickly turned into a 2 boat race with LC and UVic well ahead of the rest of the field.

In the end the girls were very excited with their great result and realize that they probably rowed too hard in their heat especially since they really did not get a break between their heat and the final. However they carried the Rustler colors very well and at the end of the day everybody knew where Lakeland College was from. For more details about the challenges they faced feel free to ask the crew members!!

Also competing for Lakeland was our men’s 4+ who raced very well in the junior varsity class. In their timed heat they finished fourth behind three strong crews from UVic, UBC and Simon Fraser University. Their race was 2000 m (compared to the women’s event of 1000 m) and some of the crew members they were racing against have been rowing for up to six years. When it was explained to the UVic coach that the Rustler Crew had started rowing just seven weeks ago he was very impressed as were the other crews competing against them. With four of the seven rustler men returning this bodes well for next year’s Crew.

The nine ladies and four men that represented Lakeland College so well in BC included Amy Smith, Michelle Blanchette, Nicole Mark, Danielle Walker, Lindsay Stanko, Kat Wiggans, Calla Martin, Laura Schmale and Dawn Rosset with Richard Ellens, Brian Huisman, Ryan Lutz and Curtis Ross.

Rustler crew will now focus on indoor training as we near the end of our outdoor water season and we would like to take this opportunity to thank the college for its fantastic support for the program and helping to make this season possible.