Rustlers attend Western Canadian University Rowing Championships in Leduc

Three words can be used to describe this event on that day… Cold cold cold!!!

With temperatures hovering around zero, grey skies and a creepy little breeze blowing… these conditions were very taxing on the athletes. Even so, all crews rowed in the same conditions but the champions were able to rise above the elements and get the job done; which is what the crews from UBC and UVic were able to accomplish as they dominated the winner's circle in most events.

Lakeland College had entries in four races including men and women.

The Junior varsity women's 8+ was the first race of the day for Rustler Crew and while a gold medal in this event was not the expectation the girls had hoped for a strong race. Unfortunately the cold led to an injury in the early part of the race and this left the girls with a fifth place finish. While this was not a performance they had prepared for, it was probably an early indication of the struggles they would have that day.

The next race up was the Novice women's 8+ which was a composite boat made up of four ladies from Lakeland and four ladies from the University of Calgary. The challenge with a composite boat is that you have rowers that have never raced together and they were never able to really get together through the race and trailed the field at the finish line.

The Novice men's 8+ followed next and they met with much the same fate as the women as they were also in a composite crew with rowers from the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary. It was a valiant and yet frustrating final row of the season for the gentlemen as they also ended up trailing the field at the finish line.

Final race of the day for Lakeland was the women's Junior Varsity 4- in which we again split the women into two crews, our novice women in one boat and our senior women in the other boat. In this event they were again rowing against more experienced junior varsity women from the other universities. But both boats rowed very good races with the novice women finishing a very close fourth to the third place boat from the University of Regina. The girls had some directional challenges managing their course with the crosswind which probably cost them a third-place finish but they rowed very strong and finished the season with a satisfying effort.

The crews now move indoors in preparation for the Alberta indoor rowing championships in March.