The Canadian high school rowing championships in St. Catharines, Ont. on June 3-5 were historic for regatta organizers and remarkable for the two Cowichan Valley schools that sent crews.
The regatta itself had to be reconfigured significantly to cope with windy weather, as Brentwood College School head of rowing Debbie Sage pointed out.
“It was the first time in the 71-year history that they actually started races at seven in the morning so they would miss the heavy weather pattern in the afternoon,” she related.
Races usually start at 11 a.m. and run every 15 minutes, with awards presented in between. Instead, organizers ran races every six minutes, with all the awards presented at the end of racing.
“It wasn’t pretty, but they got it all in,” Sage said.
Brentwood crews reached 12 finals and won eight medals, finishing second out of 127 schools in the boys standings and third in the girls standings, achieving marks they hadn’t hit in several years.
“It was pretty good success, coming home with four gold medals,” Sage said. “We haven’t done that since 2009, so it was pretty exciting. We expected to make 12 finals. The eight medals was a bonus.”
The school took 44 athletes to St. Catharines, including 16 Grade 12s, to whom they bid farewell at the banquet at the end of the weekend.
“We have a pretty strong program beyond what we took with us,” Sage said. We’re excited about next year.”
Brentwood crews won gold in the junior men’s quad (Bennett Layton, Valentin Eisenberg, Riley Toporowski, Liam Carson), senior men’s four (cox Scott Jonson, Alex Ridenour, Brett Vilk, Lion Tautz, Peter Lancashire), senior women’s four (cox Seo Young Ra, Josie Storey, Brooke Martin, Jessica Novecosky, Danielle MacDonald) and senior men’s lightweight four (cox Emily Lawrence, Ellis Hollands, Nate Elmes, Francesco Maulini, Jonathan Butcher).
The school also took silver in the junior men’s eight (cox Emma Holmes, Oliver Wilson, Mason Shadlock, Will Pringle, Bennett Layton, Valentin Eisenberg, Riley Toporowski, Liam Carson, Louis Kirstein), senior women’s lightweight four (cox Paige Ledingham, Renee Lafreniere, Kate Laumann-Wallace, Tasmin West, Sophia Auton) and senior men’s eight (cox Emily Lawrence, Alex Ridenour, Brett Vilk, Lion Tautz, Peter Lancashire, Liam Bontkes, Francesco Maulini, Joe Madigan, Ellis Hollands), and bronze in the senior women’s lightweight eights (cox Seo Young Ra, Renee Lafreniere, Kate Laumann-Wallace, Tasmin West, Sophia Auton, Elizabeth Bertozzi, Katherine Buckley, Megan Adams, Hannah McNeill).
Also making finals for Brentwood were the senior women’s eight, junior men’s coxed four, senior men’s lightweight double and senior men’s double crews.
Shawnigan Lake School head of rowing Tim Coy was also pleasantly surprised with his team’s performance, which included reaching six finals and winning three medals.
“We thought we would only have two or three go to the finals, and possibly no medals, so we were happy with the results,” Coy said. “It went really well.
Of the 36 athletes Shawnigan sent to Ontario, only seven will be graduating this year, so most of the team will be back.
“Some of our junior crews got quite a bit faster toward the end of the season, so it was an encouraging way to finish up,” Coy said.
Shawnigan claimed silver in the junior women’s four (cox Hannah King, Hannah Narraway, Claudia Norris, Amelia MacIntosh, Penny Crothers), and bronze in the senior women’s lightweight double (Anna Koehler, Kelly Halvorsen) and senior men’s lightweight four (cox Victoria Schuster, Chris Postuk, Jerek Postuk, Sam Postuk, Angus Brown).
The Postuk triplets who made up the bulk of the senior men’s lightweight four may have made history, although records like that aren’t officially kept.
“It’s got to at least tie a record for the number of same birthdays in a boat,” Coy said. “You wouldn’t think it happens very often.”
Shawnigan also reached finals in the junior women’s eight, senior women’s four, and senior women’s eight.
