WELLAND, Ont -- McGill finished seventh on the men's side and 11th in the women's division at the 19th annual Canadian University Rowing Association national championships over the weekend. The UBC Thunderbirds won the men's banner, while the Western Mustangs women's crew won their fourth consecutive CURA title.

Two McGill boats performed well enough to reach the finals in their respective categories, including Lucas de Gelder of Vancouver, B.C., in the men's heavyweight single, which placed fifth in seven minutes, 44 seconds.

De Gelder, a 6-foot-5 mechanical engineering senior who also rowed in the stroke seat of the heavy eight, finishing his fifth year of eligibility with a strong race. Although he had not trained much this season in the single scull boat, he still managed to pull off a solid finish. Over the past year, he has competed nationally and internationally in the under-23 division, including a gold medal performance in a pair at the in the Canadian championships at Burnaby Lake, B.C.

On the women's side, the top McGill result was the heavyweight eight, which finished fifth in 7:18, some 10 seconds behind Queen's.

The boat featured coxswain Erin Dwyer, a sophomore from Detroit, Mich., plus senior Esther Jamieson of Aurora, Ont., sophomore Alice Brais  of Westmount, Que., junior Kendall McCormick of Essex, Mass., senior Talia Sternbach of Albany, N.Y., sophomore Cassie Pozzobon  of Niagara Falls, Ont., freshman Georgia Jones  of Providence, R.I., junior Stephanie Marchand of Boucherville, Que., and Sophie Toor, a junior from Barrie, Ont.

"This lineup has been together from the beginning of the season and has been a huge success for the women's team," said Toor. "A crew with extreme variance in experience really clicked and worked hard together for the past two months – analysing countless videos and getting on the water as early as possible.

This weekend was Jamieson's last regatta with McGill as a rower. Over her five years of extreme dedication to the program, she won Team MVP honours, served as president of the program and was captain of the women's team.

"Having the opportunity to compete at the Canadian championships was the perfect way to round off a season in a boat with such incredible, hardworking athletes," said Jamieson. "The cohesiveness of this crew was a direct result of the support and trust we have for each other, and that manifested the most in this race. We created the environment we needed in order to reach a new limit. I couldn't have asked for a better experience, or better final race with this McGill rowing family."

This crew was also seen as the underdog crew, and a relatively small crew compared to our competitors with a boat weight average of around 145 pounds, and even one lightweight rower in the bow, so the head wind this weekend was a challenge – however they were able to give a strong performance and continue to be the dark horse of the regatta. After the race, Western, the consecutive Ontario champions congratulated the girls on their "impressive push" given the entire season.

The UBC men were first of 23 schools with 108 points. Rounding out the men's Top 10 was Trent (99), Victoria (88), Western (82), Brock (78), Queen's (56), McGill (42), McMaster (42), Carleton (41) and Ottawa (32).

The women's division had Western finishing first of  23 schools with 118 points. Rounding out the top 12 was UBC (115), Victoria (84), Brock (60), Queen's (58), Guelph (49), Toronto (46), Ottawa (42), Calgary (36), Carleton (35), McGill (27) and Trent (26).

LINK TO COMPLETE RESULTS

OTHER McGILL RESULTS FROM THIS PAST WEEKEND:

Men's heavyweight eight – 7^th overall -- finished first in B Final (6:15)
Lineup: Amanda MacPherson (coxie), Lucas de Gelder, Felix Trepanier, Craig McCullogh, Quentin Basiren, Nicholas Swanson-Hutchison, Jean Westenberg, Eric Saragosa and Alexander Kiepas.

This crew had their first race together this weekend.  Westenberg and Saragosa have been integral members of the lightweight crew all season, however, were asked to step up into the heavyweight crew for this regatta. John Ross and David Octeau are normally in this eight, but had already used up their eligibility and were not eligible to compete in this regatta. The same story applies to the coxies, normally Natasha Caminsky works this boat but she had already completed her eligibility. She was replaced by MacPherson, normally part of the lightweight crew. Unfortunately, they missed the A final by one second to Western and Queen's, but did extremely well dominating their final race with a better time that sixth-place Queen's posted in the A Final (6:17).
 
Women's lightweight double – 15th overall -- C Final (8:45).
Line up: Jenny He and Sarah Zhou

This duo, which was among only three lightweight McGill women who were sent to the championship, started training together less than a month ago. This was only their second regatta together. Jenny He competed after returning from the hospital with an infected blister.
 
Men's lightweight four – 7^th overall -- finished first in B Final (6:57).
Lineup: Amanda MacPherson (coxie), Hubert Blouin, Eric Saragosa, Jonathan Lindstrom-Vautrin, Jean Westenberg

This crew, which won silver in OUA championships last week, missed the A final by three seconds to Trent. However, the bounced back with a strong race to win the B final with a time that was faster than the A Final times clocked by Victoria (7:01) and Trent (7:04). McPherson, Westernberg and Saragosa also competed in the heavyweight eight race.
 
Men's lightweight pair – 12^th overall -- B Final (7:59).
Line up: Craig McCullogh and Felix Trepanier

This pair has been rowing together for over four years, as they previously trained together at Dawson College. McCullogh serves as crew president and Trepanier serves as VP Finance.
 
Women's lightweight single – 9^th overall -- finished third in B Final (9:24).
Line up: Sophie Toor

This is Toor's first season in sculling, in the single and as a lightweight rower. She also competed in the heavyweight eight. During her race, she had to row through a flock of geese and was stuck in the middle of the flock for about 500 metres. She opted to "hotseat" (competing in back-to-back races, without returning to the main dock) on both days of the competition.
 
Men's lightweight double  – 9^th overall – B Final, (7:44.528) fractions behind behind Carleton 7:44.472)
Line up: Bradley Minielly and Luca Furst

A race that included Olympian Maxwell Lattime, produced an extremely exciting finish with only a bow ball making the difference between second and third in the B Final.
 
Women's heavyweight single – 12^th overall – B Final, (9:37)
Lineup: Stephanie Marchand

Marchand performed extremely well this season, also rowing with the heavyweight eight and the single scull shell.


FOR FURTHER INFO CONTACT:

Earl Zukerman
McGill Sports Info Office
(514) 398-7012