After completing their third tournament at Brock last weekend, the Varsity Blues men’s and women’s rowing teams are nearing the end of their season. Both teams are led by a collection of distinguished rowers that were successful at last year’s Canadian University Rowing Championship, and are backed up by a solid group of novice rowers.
The men’s rowing team ended the 2013 season successfully, as two Varsity Blues boats were victorious at the Canadian University Rowing Championship in Montreal. The men’s heavyweight fours B final was won by Toronto’s Jacob Giesbrecht, Andrei Vovk, Ben Mayers and Matthew Vincent, and all but Vincent have returned for the 2014 season. Giesbrecht and Vincent also captured first place in the men’s heavyweight B final.
The success of these veteran rowers at the Western Invitational was an encouraging sign for the Varsity Blues. The men’s team dominated the heavyweight single race at this season’s opening tournament. Second–year rower Giesbrecht took gold, with Vovk following up with a silver medal for the Varsity Blues. This duo continued their success at the Head of Trent Regatta, where they placed third in the heavyweight double.
The successful return of these rowers suggests that the team may improve on last year’s seventh place finish at the Ontario University Athletics rowing championships. The Varsity Blues men have not won the tournament since 1981, but the young team and their standout rowers show signs of success for this year’s tournament on October 26.
Similarly, the women’s team is fronted by Heather Noble and Oksana Wankieicz, who received third-place in the lightweight double B final at the Canada-wide tournament. These two have been repeating their success as of late, with both being awarded two medals at the Head of Trent Regatta on October 4. They were members on the third place lightweight eights boat, and the tandem placed fourth in the lightweight double race.
Noble and Wankieicz lead a young team this year, as seven rowers on the women’s roster are in their first year of eligibility. In order to improve on last year’s eleventh-place finish at the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) championship, first-year novice rower Pauline Karpazis explained that the team must continue working on some aspects of its competition: “After the Brock invitational last weekend, we realized we need to focus on exerting more power through the stroke and to really push our boat through the water by driving with our legs in order to be competitive at OUAs,” said Karpazis.
A successful OUA showing will rely on these novice boats improving their power while maintaining their rhythmic catch timing, which Karpazis notes as a strength of the novice boats.
The rowing teams will compete in the OUA championships October 25–26, and hope to move onto the Canadian Intercollegiate Sport championships at the beginning of November.
