Western, Brock take home banner winning performances on the water

The OUA Rowing Championships were held in St. Catharines, ON at the Canadian Henley Rowing Course. Building on a partnership started in 2016, the OUA Championships was jointly hosted by ROWONTARIO and Ontario University Athletics.

Despite windy conditions on Friday for the heats and a forecasted storm for Saturday, participants lucked out with calm water—albeit cool temperatures and light rain—for the Championship finals.

For the 5^th consecutive year, the Western University Mustangs dominated the field of Women’s Rowing, winning nine gold, eight silver, and one bronze medal, and finishing well ahead in the overall points tally to win the Championship banner.  Western finished the regatta with 622 points, followed by Brock University (245 points), Guelph University (175 points), University of Toronto (141 points) and Queen’s University (135 points).

Queen’s University’s Louise Munro, who decisively won the Women’s Single, was named Female Athlete of the Year.

Western University’s Sara Matovic was named Women’s Coach of the Year.  Matovic coached the Mustang Lightweights, who swept the Lightweight Women’s events this year.

On the Men’s side, Brock and Western traded wins all day in close, down-to-the-wire finishes.  In the Men’s Eight, worth 100 points to the winner, Western edged out Brock by 2.22 seconds.  As a result, the overall points champion came down to the very last race of the day, the Lightweight Men’s Pair, which saw Brock finish ahead of Western by 4.93 seconds. The Brock University Badgers finished on top in Men’s Rowing, winning four gold, one silver, and one bronze medal, coming away with a leading tally of 456 points, followed by Western University (427 points), Queen’s University (234 points), Trent University (159 points), and University of Ottawa (149 points).

Male Athlete of the Year was jointly awarded to Taylor Ashwood of Brock and Alex Bernst of Queen’s, both lightweights who have exceled in their events this season. 

Men’s Coach of the Year was awarded to Brock University’s Scott Anderson and Tom Kent, who co-coached the Badger Lightweights this year.

Gold medal winners are also named OUA All-Stars.  Full results are available at: https://goo.gl/mfQCSB

Women’s Rowing medallists (by school)

Western University

1^st – Lightweight Single (Moffat); Lightweight Eight (Werbicki, Boehmer, Soares, Moffat, Scaletta, Urabe, Alizadeh, Vanderzwet, Low); Coxed Four (McConnell, Baranowski, Perkucin, Drew, Gooch); Lightweight Double (Werbicki, Knight); Lightweight Coxed Four (Boehmer, Scaletta, Urabe, Alizadeh, Gooch); Eight (Ensminger, Lefsrund, Drew, Gadsdon, Baranowski, Perkucin, Dubois, Arends, Low); Lightweight Pair (Soares, Knight)

2^nd –Pair (Dubois, Deane); Double (Ensminger, McConnell); Single (Arends)

Brock University

2^nd – Lightweight Eight (Mambella, Jansen, Piazza, Bagshaw, Rose, Samuelson, Jose, Weaver, Court); Lightweight Coxed Four (Corkery, Jansen, Piazza, Ayres, Court)

3^rd – Pair (Martin, Maloney)

University of Guelph

1^st – Double (Zanatta, Dennis)

2^nd – Lightweight Double (Zanatta, Dennis)

3^rd – Lightweight Cosed Four (Benwood, De Wit, Pollock, Hosker, Hunt); Lightweight Pair (Benwood, De Wit)

University of Toronto

2^nd – Lightweight Pair (Lewicki, Dick)

3^rd – Coxed Four (Richardson, Kamachi, Wells, Loves, MacAlpine); Lightweight Double (Lewicki, Dick)

Queen’s University

1^st – Pair (Adams, Deane); Single (Munro)

3^rd – Lightweight Single (Chase)

University of Ottawa

3^rd – Double (Page, Pastic)

McGill University

2^nd – Eight (Brais, Bedard, Milosz, Riley, MacLaren, Williams, Jones, Marchand, Yin)

Trent University

2^nd – Coxed Four (Lenters, Armstrong, Trickey, Curtis, Geller)

3^rd – Eight (Lenters, Burns, Curtis, Trickey, Armstrong, Scheel, Benn, Temperley, Geller)

McMaster University

2^nd – Lightweight Single (Okuda-Rayfuse)

Laurentian University

3^rd – Single (Chase)

Men’s Rowing medallists (by school)

Brock University

1^st – Lightweight Eight (Voelkner, Ashwood, Martens, Whiteley, Van Helvert, Buchanan, Potts, Vanderloos, Gordon); Coxed Four (Roger, Finley, Heffernan, Malcowski, Boyes); Lightweight Coxed Four (Voelkner, Ashwood, Berkhout, Whiteley, Gordon); Lightweight Pair (Andrews, Potts)

2^nd – Eight (Finley, Heffernan, Pierce, Koroll, Hohnstein, Roger, Malcowski, McDonald, Boyes)

3^rd – Pair (Koroll, Pierce)

Western University

1^st – Pair (Ames, Halvorson); Eight (Ames, Nicolson, Clegg, Halvorson, Thornton, Pamenter, Pollock, Pelletier, Webb-Wilkinson)

2^nd – Lightweight Eight (Vassallo, Gogan, Powell, Blazevic, Stevenson, Newell, Brandt, Enno, Luszawski); Coxed Four (Nicolson, Clegg, Pamenter, Thornton, Webb-Wilkinson); Single (Pelletier); Lightweight Coxed Four (Vassallo, Gogan, Blasevic, Newell, Luszawski); Lightweight Pair (Powell, Enno)

Queen’s University

1^st – Double (Bernst, Grubic); Lightweight Double (Bernst, Grubic); Single (Stone)

Trent University

2^nd – Pair (Jones, Bullock); Lightweight Double (Kelly, Penney)

3^rd – Lightweight Coxed Four (Penney, Kelly, Hamilton, Dupuis, Guertin)

University of Ottawa

1^st – Lightweight Single (Kunkel)

3^rd – Lightweight Pair (Hickey, Gobeil Odai)

University of Toronto

2^nd – Lightweight Single (Vovk)

3^rd – Lightweight Double (Vovk, Sati); Eight (Plenderleith, Been, Hill, Poveda, King, Muise, McNeil, Sati, Koudys)

McGill University

2^nd – Double (McCullogh, Basiren)

Carleton University

3^rd – Lightweight Eight (Suktorf, Hietkamp, Erazo, Brockbank, Clover, Parkhouse, Gordon, Powell, Shilliday)

University of Guelph

3^rd – Coxed Four (White, Hughes-Mussio, Weber-Martin, Boland, Landell)

University of Ontario Institute of Technology

3^rd – Double (Reid, Vantfoort)

Laurentian University

3^rd – Single (Alexander)

ROWONTARIO is recognized by the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion as the not-for-profit governing body for rowing in the Province of Ontario.  At its inception, the Ontario Rowing Association (whose trade name became ROWONTARIO in 2001) had nine member clubs and some 500 active rowers.  However, today there are over 8,000 active rowers in Ontario.