St. Catherine's, Ont. (October 16, 2011) - The Queen's Gaels headed to St Catharines this past weekend to compete at the Brock Invitational Regatta, their first and only race that followed the OUA championship format. High winds delayed the regatta by a day, causing several other Universities to cancel their travel plans. The absence of teams like Ottawa U and Carleton did not help paint a clear picture of where exactly crews from different Universities stack up against each other, adding to the speculation of who will bring home the OUA banner a week and a half from now.
Several Queen's crews had a very strong showing this weekend, bringing home victories in the Lightweight Women's Eight, Four and Single.
The Lightweight Women's Eight, made up of Lindsey Wilson, Emily Richardson, Bekah Brown, Amelia Wilkinson, Flurry Hogg, Sean Peterson, Courtney Coston, Jen Johnston and Sarah Fisher, asserted their dominance in the race by taking an early lead and maintaining it down the course, beat second place Western by five seconds.
Wilson, Richardson, Brown, Hogg and Wilkinson later went on to race the four, but found themselves behind for the majority of the race. A strong sprint with three hundred meters to go barely pushed them to first place at the finish line, where they once again beat Western, this time by half a second.
Erin Snelgrove made her debut as a Gael with a dominating performance in the Lightweight Women's Single. After easily winning her heat, Snelgrove crossed the finish well ahead of U of T in the final.
The Heavyweight Women's Eight came second to Western in a hard fought race that saw the Gaels leading for the first half. The Gaels tried to come back after a strong push from the Mustangs around the thousand meter mark but ended up coming short at the line. This race marked the first time in the last 4 years that anyone had led Western at any point during a race, or even finished within reach of the Mustangs. The crew, made up of Sean Whitehall, Cayley Firth, Meghan Robinson, Elise Hofmann, Kaitlyn McSorley, Chelsea Wisheart, Talia Wright, Jessica Metuzals and Laura Fraser will look to gain that extra little bit of speed over the next two weeks to try and beat the defending champions for the first time in recent memory.
Wisheart later joined Bryn Savage in the Heavyweight Women's Double to claim another silver medal, losing to Brock by 6 seconds.
Hofmann won a bronze medal in the Heavyweight Women's Single, finishing behind Laurentian and Brock. The eight boat race was made up of four Gaels, with Robinson placing fourth, Savage finishing sixth and rookie Natasha Wozniak finishing seventh.
Elizabeth Carter and Maude Warren came third in the Lightweight Women's double behind first place Western and second place Brock.
The Men's team expected fierce competition from the Mustang and the Badgers, two historically strong teams that always prove tough to beat. Such was the case as bronze was the only colours the Gaels saw. The Lightweight Men's Eight, Four and Single as well as the Heavyweight Men's Eight all finished third but will look to gain some serious momentum over the next two weeks.
Jordan Wille got the ball rolling for Queen's in the Lightweight Men's Single, coming third behind Western and Guelph.
The Lightweight Men's Eight, made up of Jacob Koudys, Patrick McCrady, Alan Payno, Joe Kunkel, Dave Oram, Chris Zakos, Matt Steel, Matt Christie and Jordan Rendall, fell behind early in the race after a poor start, setting the tone for the rest of the race where they finished third.
Koudys, McCrady, Payno, Oram and Zakos later went on to race the Lightweight Men's Four where they also collect the Bronze medal.
The Heavyweight Men's crews looked to redeem themselves in the Heavyweight Men's Eight, the last race of the day, after a disappointing day at the course. The extremely strong field provided some fierce competition but the Gaels found their rhythm and rowed to a third place finish, their only medal of the day. The crew, made up of Steven Tuffner, Locke Davenport-Huyer, Rob Thompson, Scott Brandon, Eric Faquharson, Mike Craig, Albert Harkema, Rami Maassarani and Pat O'Connor managed to stay in contact with the second place Brock crew for the majority of the race but ran out of gas in the last few hundred meters of the race and fell behind by five seconds at the finish line.
The Gaels will begin their final preparations for the OUA championships, the culmination of a year's worth of hard work.
