MONTREAL – The McGill University Rowing Club is set to renew a century-old rivalry with an old foe when they confront the Toronto Varsity Blues in a head-to-head meeting on Saturday morning (May 6) in Lachine, Que.
This inaugural annual competition, to be known as the
Toronto-McGill Challenge, replaces the previous Queen's-McGill matchup which ran from 1997 to 2015, and is the Canadian equivalent of England's historic Oxford-Cambridge confrontation and the epic Harvard-Yale race in the U.S.
The McGill rowing club dates back 100 years to its founding meeting in December, 1925, followed by the first competition in 1926. It has featured many athletes who have represented Canada on the international scene, including 18 Olympians. The Varsity Blues rowing program, which dates to 1897, has produced 25 Olympians.
Renewal of the Toronto-McGill clash adds another dimension to a long-standing athletic rivalry that has existed between these two schools since 1881 when the first rugby-football confrontation began. The initial rowing matchup between the two schools – billed as the first-ever intercollegiate rowing competition on Canadian waters – took place in chilly, windy conditions at Lachine, Que., on Oct. 16, 1926. The McGill eight, under the guidance of coxie/coach
Urban Molmans, a celebrated Belgian oarsmen, defeated Toronto by 1.5 boat lengths.
The long-time rivals would traditionally bet their crew shirts on a sprint, with the winner receiving the shirt off the back of the losing side.
This week's competition will take place at the Lachine Rowing Club, site of Canada's oldest rowing group, which is celebrating its 160th season. The venue is located at 2801 Boulevard Saint-Joseph in Lachine.
Crews are scheduled to arrive at 6:30 a.m. to rig their boats, followed by a coaches meeting at 7 a.m. The first event, featuring a "reserves mixed eight" composed of men and women, is set for 8 a.m. The men's eight is slated for 8:45 a.m., followed by the women's eight at 9:30 a.m. An awards ceremony is expected around 10:30 a.m.
The course is 3.4 kilometres in distance and expected to take about 15 minutes to complete. They start on the lake at Dorval Island and finish at the Lachine Rowing Club venue. The best spot to watch from is the finish line, in front of the clubhouse. The Longhouse Pier is also a good spot to view the proceedings.
This annual competition is an entirely student-organized, coach-run, out of season event with alternating hosts each spring. When in Montreal, it will be hosted by the McGill club ideally at Lachine, due to its historical significance. Depending on conditions, the Lachine Canal itself would normally be the first choice, with the Lachine Rowing Club second and the Olympic Rowing Basin as a contingency backup plan in case of bad weather.
The U of T crew (see lineups below) is led by head coach
Mark Williams, who has donated the Barber Pole Trophy, which will go to the winning men's eight.
"This would not be possible without the generous support of the Lachine Rowing Club, particularly
Richard Cabana, president of the club, who is a long-time personal friend of mine," said
Dr. Philip Hedrei, a former McGill rower who has served as the team's head coach since 2009 and has donated two trophies for this event. "Also a big thank-you to
Max Button, head coach of the Lachine crew. Both are avid supporters of the McGill rowing program."
"The intention in the future is to have two reserves (i.e. "B" boats), one men's and one women's," Hedrei noted. "But since our program was on hold for two years of athlete development during the pandemic, we could not field two entries this year. We decided, as the host university, to encourage participation and not to exclude the extra rowers from U of T and therefore, we will make it a three-boat race for this year."
The McGill crew selection for this weekend (see lineups below) was made by assistant coach
Stéphanie Marchand, a former McGill rower who normally works with the women's varsity boats.
McGILL LINEUPS:
(more biographical details available from
the 2022 McGill team roster page)
Men's Eight: Georg
Gaidoschik (coxie), Victor
Rolland, Markus
Maile, Patrice
Legare, Jocelyn
Blanchet, Edison
Luke, Jacob
Lofaro, Paul
Speciel, Federico
Sanchez.
Women's Eight: Paige
McCallum (coxie), Abby
Powell, Alice
Saito, Caroline
Zimmer, Moka
Johns, Molly
Tinmouth, Mariam
Anwar, Emily
Lindquist, Sophie
Waller.
Reserves Mixed Eight: Paige
McCallum (coxie), Anaë
Werner, Adam
Czarnecki , Heather
Chisholm, Avery
Seeley, Harrison
Roy, Theresia
Schwab, Mia
Stevanovic, Sofia
Campos.
TORONTO LINEUPS:
(more biographical details available from the
2022 Toronto team roster page)
Men's Eight:
Jack
Pankratz (coxie), Ben
Humer, Noah
Campbell, Luc
Dodge-Terra, Kamal
Elboghdadi, Sebastien
Psarianos, Peter
Mikulash, Nick
Garcia, Eric
Liu
Women's Eight:
Katy
Myler (coxie), Katrina
Miehlbradt, Olivia
Brunnenkant, Alison
Okumura, Lark
Huska, Krizia
Rust, Jamie
Rosenfeld, Lauren
Pureza-Dagenais, Sophie
Corradini
Reserves Mixed Eight (Boat 1):
Peter
Hansen (coxie), Eren
Rudy, William
Lloyd, Youssef
El Mays, Navraj
Brar, Claudia
Makhanko-Tang,
Roksolana Nazar, Maia
Stelfox, Jane
Paterson
Reserves Mixed Eight (Boat 2):
TJ
Amaro (coxie), Vanessa
Lin, Fotrune
David, Emily
Thompson, Sarah
Armstrong, Orlando
Weekes, Adam
Barhoush, Thomas
Carnell-Deryani, Shayan
Siddiqui
Spares:
Elena
Eberhardt, Sabrine
Chanda
SOURCE
Earl Zukerman
Sports Information Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca
