The Martlet

The Oregon State Beavers paid UVic a visit last weekend as they traveled north of the border to take on the Vikes for the dual race rowing regatta.

Most of the Saturday morning, March 7, races between UVic, Oregon State University (OSU) and UBC had to deal with choppy seas and a constant cross wind as the boats came down the 2,000-metre course on Elk Lake. But the crews fought long and hard to claim the victories in their respective categories.

The men’s varsity eight-plus had the best UVic result of the day by beating OSU and UBC for the win, whereas the women’s four-plus had the best UVic women’s race of the day by placing second by a mere 0.6 seconds to the OSU crew.

The UVic’s men’s eight-plus pulled a final time of 6:24 to beat the NCAA Beavers crew by four seconds. UBC’s eight-plus finished third with a time of 6:36. UVic had a quick start but did not start to pull away from the OSU crew until the first 500 metres. With a six to seven second lead at the 1,500-metre mark, UVic saw the Beavers’ eight-plus gaining water on them down the home stretch and quickly closing in on their lead. But it was too little too late for OSU, as UVic crossed the finish line first.

The winning Vikes’ eight-plus crew was made up of Mike Mason, Josh Morris, Doug Csima, Tom Bailey, Pete Brooks, Richard Herlinveaux, Tom Watson and Eric Tremblay, with cox Jane Gumley leading them to victory.

“The UVic guys never looked threatened,” said Vikes men’s rowing coach Paul Hawksworth. “We’ve had some close races with OSU in the past and they’re a strong team. Last year the varsity eight-plus lost to OSU by 1.5 seconds, and the junior varsity eight-plus by 13.5 seconds. To have reversed these results heavily in our own favor speaks to the level of commitment to training and performance we’ve seen from the guys this year.”

In the other men’s races, the UVic junior varsity eight-plus beat out the Oregon freshmen eight-plus by 10 seconds, with finals times for UVic of 6:43 and OSU with 6:53. The UVic men’s novice four-plus finished second with a time of 7:55, 12 seconds behind Oregon State. The women’s races were well fought but, unfortunately for UVic, OSU dominated in the varsity eight-plus and the novice eight-plus categories.

“We are young and have a lot of work to do,” said UVic women’s rowing coach Rick Crawley.

The Vikes women’s varsity four-plus crew showed a good performance, as they developed a three-boat advantage on OSU, but in the final 1,000 metres they were blown off course by winds, and ended with a final time of 8:30.9. OSU crossed the finish line a mere 0.6 seconds ahead, for a final time of 8:30.3.

“We should have won this one, but our crew had a couple of our lightweights [racing] in it,” Crawley said about the narrow varsity four-plus defeat.

Next up on the Vikes’ rowing schedule is the Brown Cup, which will be a head race held in Richmond, B.C. It will be hosted by UBC and will take place on the Fraser River on March 28. The novice crews from UBC and UVic will race the Brown Cup course on the March 21 to give a preview of what will be to come.

UVic will face their rivals from Point Grey and look to continue the dominance on the women’s side, which will see them go for a record 17th-consecutive win. The men will hope to rebound from their Brown Cup lost last season and rekindle their past winning ways.