UOIT Ridgebacks Media Release
Sunday, October 19, 2008

UOIT Rowers Surge at Guelph

Guelph, Ont. - UOIT rowers made their presence felt at the Guelph Developmental regatta on Saturday with one crew finishing second and three other crews finishing third. Under near perfect weather and rowing conditions, UOIT, McMaster, Brock, Trent and Guelph University battled each other on the 2000 meter course located at Lake Guelph.

Jake Schwass and Colin Jeffery had the best UOIT placement on the day of the day finishing second to McMaster University in the Junior Varsity double despite having a bent fin which made it difficult to keep their boat going straight. McMaster winning time was 7:45.39.

UOIT placed third in an exciting race won by Brock University in the Men’s Heavy Junior Varsity coxed four. Coxswain, Francine Brassard, steered a perfect course and motivated her crew of Justin Vanden Bosch, Mike Bissonnette, Alex Sabo and Hadi Turk to their best race of the season. Brock’s winning time was 6:59.

The novice men’s eight continued to impress by advancing to the finals and then finishing third. The University of Western Ontario had the fastest novice eight with a time of 6:41.

UOIT women’s rowers also had a good day with the novice eight of Cox’n Valerie Naylor, Lauren Dares, Missy Sobotka, Tiffany Hau, Olga Shumilova, Allison Cushing, Allison Jukic, Melissa McDonald and Gillian Beckette finishing second in their heat with a time of 8:34. Brock University won the novice women’s eight in time of 7:38.16.

UOIT Lightweight Cox’n Valerie Naylor, Christine Pyatt, Christie Attwood, Tiffany Hau and Jennifer Ouellette, placed third and UOIT Junior Varsity Cox’n Justine Bourgouis, Nesya Laszkiewica, Renei Tayor, Allison Jucik and Allison Ng place fourth in the Junior Varsity women’s coxed four final. The race was won by Trent University.

Although placing second in their heat, UOIT’s Lisa Harrington and Rachel Taylor failed to advance to the final in the women’s Junior Varsity Double which was won by Brock University.

The UOIT Varsity Rowing Crews did not compete this weekend.

The UOIT Novice Rowing Crews will compete this coming Friday (October 24), in St. Catharines at the OUA Novice Championship Regatta, while the UOIT Varsity Rowing Crews will compete on the Saturday (October 25) at the OUA Rowing Championships.

- 30 -

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Scott Dennis
Sports Information and Marketing Coordinator
Durham College and UOIT Athletics
905.721.2000 Ext. 2784 (P)
905.721.3117 (F)

Release written by UOIT Heavy Weight Men's Coach Mark Laschuk