Although things didn’t look promising in the days leading up to the Maple Bay Rowing Club’s regatta on Quamichan Lake last weekend, the weather held off for the day of the event.
“We were so glad the weather gods gave us a break from the wet stuff for Saturday,” MBRC head coach Cheryl Thibodeau said. “Other then a bit of wind in the afternoon that almost threatened a couple of events, all races got off and stayed on time throughout the day.”
Ten clubs from southern Vancouver Island and Saltspring Island took part in the regatta. Victoria City Rowing Club came away with top honours, taking the overall points title with 89, followed by Brentwood College School with 63 and Shawnigan Lake School with 57.
Maple Bay Rowing Club was sixth with 29 points. The host club didn’t have any eights crews entered, which limited their capacity for earning points.
“We don’t have any big boats to compete with the bigger clubs,” Thibodeau explained. “And there were a lot more eights entered this year.”
Vic City also took the overall boys title with 51 points, ahead of Claremont and Brentwood, and Shawnigan claimed the girls title over Vic City and Brentwood.
Thibodeau was pleased with her club’s performance.
“The majority of our club at the moment is made up mostly of Grade 7 and 8s (junior C’s),” she said. “So [this is] a very young group showing some promise.”
The host club got first-place finishes from its junior C women’s coxed quad (Olivia Caine, Alexandra Lazenby, Margo Blumel, Elisabetta Relova-Clegg and cox Nathanael Worrall), junior C women’s double (Lazenby and Caine), and junior B women’s double (Myfanwy Warren and Ella Stemler).
The junior C men’s coxed quad (triplets Damian, Corbin and Tanner Hennessy, Carson Batty and cox Lazenby) finished second. Warren finished third in the junior B women’s single, as did the junior B women’s coxed quad (Milla Watt, Stemler, Warren and Chloe Cizeron), the junior C men’s quad (Jackson Smith, Brandon Addison, Joshua Davidson, Worrall and cox Grace Brigham), and the lightweight women’s double (Jessica Castle and Cizeron).
Highlights for Shawnigan as they took the girls overall title included Cowichan Valley girls Ellexi Fulton and Meghan Gillmore winning the novice double, Mikayla Brennan placing second in the junior B single, and Brennan, Fulton, Georgia Hall and Candace Lu winning the women’s quad.