The Canadian University Rowing Championships were held in Antigonish, NS October 31st through November 1st. This was the first time that the Championships have been held in Atlantic Canada, which provided a great opportunity to bring rowing to another part of the country and to further add to the growth of the sport. The Dinos rowing team brought ten women to the Championships. Due in part to a last-minute injury, however, only one male athlete from the U of C travelled to compete.
The format at the CURC regatta has a time trial on Saturday for all boat classes which is used to seed the finals for Sunday. Sunday finals are six-boat races and used to determine placings 1-6, 7-12, and 13-18. Coming off a third-place finish at the Western Canadian Championships, the Dinos raced the best they had all season to achieve some excellent results.
As the only male entry at the CURC, Doug Doyle-Baker raced in the lightweight men's single, an event in which he finished 12th at the 2014 Championships. With another year of maturity and experience, Doug improved his standing to finish 9th in 2015.
For the Dinos women, finals day started with Kiersten Mort and Calaine Inglis in the lightweight women's double. Seeded 9th after Saturday's time trial, the Dinos dominated the B Final to finish 7th overall. In a similar fashion, Helena Hlas was seeded 8th after her time trial in the women's single. She also dominated her B Final to finish 7th overall.
Kiersten Mort had another race later in the day to contest the lightweight women's single. Having finished 8th in the time trial, only 0.62 seconds behind the University of Toronto, Mort raced her best race of the season to trade places with U of T. Mort won her B Final by 0.56 seconds to finish 7th overall.
After the Saturday time trials, Dinos rowers had qualified two boats for the A Final, which would compete for medals and top-6 placings. First up were Claire Hinse and Colleen Nesbitt, who qualified 5th in the women's pair. The Dinos put together a much stronger race in the final, closing the gap between themselves and the crews in front of them, but their result remained the same as they finished 5th overall.
In the last race of the regatta, the Dinos competed in the A Final of the women's eight having qualified 4th in the time trial. This was the first time that the Dinos had ever qualified for the A Final in this event. After a distant 3rd-place finish at the Western Championships behind UBC and the University of Victoria, the Dinos rowers put together an aggressive plan to challenge for a medal. Coxswain Chelsea Deschamps said "rowing to the start for the A Final, we were very motivated to lay it all on the line so we had a shot at the podium." Dinos 5-seat, Gillian Waugh, echoed her teammates comments, stating "We reassessed our race plan after the time trial and changed a couple of things. From the first stroke in the final, we knew it was going to be a good one."
With by far their best race of the season, Dinos rowers powered past perennial contenders Queen's and Brock and chased down the University of Victoria. Cutting the margin between themselves and UVic in half, the Dinos showed their greatest speed in the final. In the end, the Dinos finished fourth, just out of the medals, behind UBC, Western, and UVic.
One of the veterns of the team, Waugh described their experience with excitement and joy. "This weekend was the moment when we finally clicked as a crew." Talking about the significance of their result, Deschamps said, "This is a massive victory for Dinos rowing." Waugh added "People know who we are now and what we're doing. We're surprising people a little bit, which is an exciting position to be in. We're putting people on their heels and making them take a step back and be aware of us."
Overall, the Dinos women finish 5th in team scoring, which is the best-ever finish for the U of C.
Full Dinos Results:
4th - W8+ (Chelsea Deschamps, Helena Hlas, Colleen Nesbitt, Claire Hinse, Gillian Waugh, Rachael Roberts, Heather Boersma, Calaine Inglis, Lauren Anderson)
5th - W2- (Claire Hinse, Colleen Nesbitt)
7th - LW2x (Kiersten Mort, Calaine Inglis)
7th - W1x (Helena Hlas)
7th - LW1x (Kiersten Mort)
9th - LM1x (Doug Doyle-Baker)
