Lakeland Rustlers Rowing Team excels at AB Indoor Rowing Championships

Eight members of Rustler Crew competed in the Alberta Indoor Rowing Championships this past weekend in Blackfalds and brought home 2 medals for their efforts.

First up were 5 members of our women's team competing in the Novice Senior Women's class in a field of 18 of the strongest university and college rowers in Alberta. The Rustler women had all set goals involving personal best times for the 2000 metre race and it was just a matter of focusing on their race and not being intimidated by the competition.

While they did not bring home any medals, they all raced under 9 minutes over the 2 km event and every one of them posted personal best times exceeding their goals. Allecia McDonald finished in 8:02 to take 6^th and sit just 4 seconds off the podium as that was the time difference between her time in 6^th and the 3^rd place time (all 3 medals in this event were won by University of Calgary rowers).

Next up were the 3 members of the men's team to compete in the novice senior men's event and these 3 gentlemen really did turn some heads with their performances. Like the women's event the men raced their 2000m in 2 separate heats against a total 13 men from across the province. Patrick Bolivar and Kyle Niedermaier led off in the first heat and Patrick laid out a blistering combination of speed and strength with Kyle right behind him. It was a bit of a shock to the university crowd when they realized the leaders were not one of theirs and that was how they finished 1-2 in their heat. Alex Schroer stepped in next to carry the Lakeland flag in his heat and he also put out an amazing speed early on and held the lead in his heat until the last quarter where he was overtaken by the eventual event winner from the U of Calgary. In the end Rustler Crew men finished with 2 medals, and all 3 of them in the top 5: Patrick with silver, Alex with bronze, and Kyle in 5^th just 3 seconds behind his teammate.

The last event of the day for Rustler Crew was the, always crazy, relay race which puts 4 rowers on a crew to row 2000m. Typically this involves any 4 people that want to row together from the same team and there can be combinations of men and women but all male or all female teams are allowed. Lakeland decided to put their 3 men together with their fastest women in team one so Allecia, Kyle, Alex, and Patrick and the all-female team of Kylie Stafford, Tiara Pihrag, Anissa Halbert and Caitlyn Arychuk in their 2^nd team. The challenge involves each crew member rowing 500 metres and trying to complete changeover of the rowers as smoothly as possible.

The crews set realistic goals for their finish, and they were both in the 2^nd heat which made it easier for the coaches to manage. Team 1 took over their heat from the start and never looked back finishing 1^st but just 2 seconds off the podium behind 3 all-male crews from the first heat. Team 2 finished in a time of 7:56, under 8 minutes, which was their target, and the ladies were very pleased with their effort.

At the end of the day the members of Rustler Crew did an awesome job of representing Lakeland College and our varsity rowing program.  Coaches Jenny McGuinness and Peter Walsh were very proud of the efforts by all the rowers involved.