The Victoria City Rowing Club girls junior A varsity eight boat dominated the Shawnigan Lake regatta competition for the second year in a row.
Cox Becky Wilder led the crew which featured Parkland students Amanda Pomphrey and Keira Flanagan as well as Stelly’s student Brittney Woodburn to a decisive first place finish on the gruelling seven-kilometre course defeating the second place finishers by just over 47 seconds.
The girls junior A quads also did well and registered second and fourth place finishes.
Vic City dominated the boys junior A quads with first, fourth and fifth place finishes in a field that had college and university crews. The winning quad featured three Parkland students, Ed Gawne, Shawn Shortill, and Brandon Carnduff, as well as Claremont’s Adam Donaldson.
The junior A boys eight and lightweight eights placed second and third overall in their categories.
The second place VCRC boat tussled with the University of Victoria freshmen boat which beat them by a three-second margin. The crews will likely line up again at Elk Lake spring regatta for a rematch.
For the Vic City boys doubles, it was junior A partners Michael Farnden and Jesse Hunter competing hard for a second place finish.
The junior B girls double with Caileigh Filmer and Kelsey Farmer rowed a strong race home for a first place finish. The girls junior B girls eights also finished well with second and fourth place finish, showing that this program has tremendous depth in a very competitive field.
The standard in the junior B boys field was led by the quad which finished with a lead of 2:53 on the rest of the field. The two eights that followed showed that the B program is developing a strong contingent of novices.
The junior C (Grade 8) group in both the boys and girls sides show promise for the future as all the athletes did a wonderful job at their first on water event.
Senior rowers actively recruited by schools
VCRC athletes on the girls side have again gained a lot of attention from the talent scouts at both Canadian and American schools due to strong results produced at the Canadian Henley last summer.
Allie DeLarge and Emily Lehre of Claremont and Keira Flanagan of Parkland have also been aggressively recruited by American universities for their rowing programs.
DeLarge has accepted a full ride scholarship at the University of Washington next year while Lehre will further her academic and rowing careers with full support from Boston University.
Flanagan has yet to make her decision but is leaning toward Old Dominion University in Virginia where VCRC alumni Shannon Huff took her full ride scholarship.
The head coach who flew out felt Flanagan would be a great fit with their program and
anticipates the two former teammates will work very well together.
Next up
• The Victoria City Junior Rowers next regatta will be the Elk Lake Spring Regatta March 31 and April 1.
• Learn more about the club online at ww.vcrc.bc.ca.
