Rustlers Crew Champs at Indoor Championships

Lakeland College's varsity rowing team was in action March 6 in the Rec Centre on the Vermilion Campus, racing in the Alberta Indoor Rowing Championships.

The competition this year was a virtual version because of COVID-19 but it was still a race and a competition in a year with so much cancelled or postponed for varsity sports.

In total, eight members of the Rustlers crew competed in five events and coaches Jenn McGuinness and Peter Walsh competed in the master events.

A total of 84 athletes from across Alberta were able to race from everywhere, including basements and garages, decks and driveways in this virtual format using Zoom links. A great bonus for Lakeland was not having to be up at 4 am and drive three-and-a-half hours to get to the site, which put us in better shape to compete. Another bonus for our athletes was the ability to have family and friends link in to watch them race from as far away as British Columbia and Ontario, which was very special. It is possible that the Alberta Rowing Association may consider this use of satellite sites in the future for indoor competitions.

The team brought home five medals in three events. The team swept the medals in the novice women's race with Amy Lemoine taking gold, Amelia Magee taking silver and Maddy Doucet capturing the bronze just ahead of teammate Emily Hartley. Their performance was particularly satisfying because they very nearly got all of their times under nine minutes. This was no small feat considering the reduced training schedule because of COVID-19 and the fact that this was the first time they have raced the 2000m event.

In the open men's event, Yasin Demirtas took the silver. He was one of only two rowers in his event to go under seven minutes over the 2000m.

Amanda Ayres, also in her first 2000m race, got her time under nine minutes in a very competitive Women's lightweight event.

Cass Deleeuw and Emily Giesbrecht raced in probably the most competitive event of the day, the Open Women's race, where 10 of the 13 competitors went under eight minutes. This race featured several women from crews that have medalled at the Henley Regatta and placed top three at the Canadian University Rowing Championships. Both Deleeuw and Giesbrecht rowed very strong races in what will probably be their last competition for Lakeland College.

The coaches McGuinness and Walsh both showed their grit, McGuinness bringing home the silver in the master's women and Walsh just missing out on his personal best in master's men.

In summary, the team greatly appreciated the chance to train and compete for the college and they would like to thank both the athletics staff for their help with their training schedule and the College senior management for allowing them this opportunity.

We look forward to next year when we can hopefully resume racing on the water.