Rower strikes gold
Alex Powell gets unexpected medal.
Heading into last weekend’s Canadian Secondary Schools Rowing Association championships, Alex Powell had conceded the gold medal in the 72-kilogram single to Patrick Keane.
Keane, a B.C. native, competes for St. Andrew’s Regional High School rower, was Rowing Canada’s 2014 junior sculler of the year and was a member of Canada’s junior national team.
“I was thinking I would maybe make it to the podium, maybe second or third, because I was expecting him to win,” Powell said.
But a week before the CSSRA championships, a coach informed the Grade 12 student at Saint Michael that Keane wasn’t going to compete at the Canadian high school championships in St. Catharines.
“Since he wasn’t here, I thought I had a chance to win and it was the first time going into a final expecting a gold,” the 18-year-old Niagara Falls native said.
Standing is his way was good friend, Brendan Andrews of Denis Morris. Andrews had defeated him at the Head of the Martindale, but Powell had won all three of the previous two-kilometre races between the two.
“I really wanted to beat the kid (Andrews) that I was rowing with,” Powell said. “I raced against him every morning.”
In the CSSRA final, Powell pulled ahead of Andrews with 250 metres to go and ended up winning by about one second.
“I thought that I had it and I really threw on a finish to beat him at the end,” he said.
There was open water between Powell and Andrews and the rest of the field.
“I was just so happy because I had never won a national event.”
Last year at the CSSRA championships, he didn’t make the final in the single but placed third in lightweight double. He credited his breakthrough spring season to hard work.
“I started practising twice a day, every single day since the beginning of April,” he said.
He would row the single on Martindale Pond at 5:30 a.m. and come back at 6:30 p.m. for another hour and a half training in the double.
“I was really tired all the time,” he said. “I was in bed by 9:30 or 10 o’clock most nights, but it really wasn’t enough sleep.”
Powell also team with Ken Nguyen to finish fifth in the 72-kilogram double. Earlier this season, they won a silver medal in the senior boys lightweight double at the Stotesbury Cup.
Powell is catching up on his sleep this week until Friday when he starts training with the St. Catharines Rowing Club. In four years of summer and fall seasons with the St. Catharines club, Powell’s best club finish was a third in the junior B men’s quad at the 2013 Royal Canadian Henley Regatta.
“I really have to make the team first, which is the hard part,” the 6-foot-1 150 pounder said. “We’re looking at a lot of fast guys this year so it should be a good season.”
Powell is a lightweight competing against heavyweights and that’s probably why he has not received any scholarship interest from American universities.
“It’s kind of tough,” he said. “I should have picked any other sport if I wanted a scholarship.”
He will, however, be in line for an academic scholarship when he
I thought that I had it and I really threw on a finish to beat him at the end.” Alex Powell
travels to the University of Western Ontario in the fall to study engineering. He boasts a 95% average in Grade 12.
He plans to continue rowing at the London university.
“Hopefully, I can row on their varsity team and the next step would be to go try out for the under-23 national team and senior national team,” he said.
Saint Michael’s rowing coach Rick Mills won’t be betting against Powell.
“In Grade 9, he was scrawny little kid but he did a lot of hard work at the school and in summer and fall school rowing,” he said. “It’s putting in the time and effort and having the dedication.”
Powell wasn’t the only medallists for Saint Michael at the CSSRA championships. Olivia Jose and Anna Maloney won the junior women’s double and Maloney was second in the junior women’s single.
“For a school that has 19 kids (rowers), that’s pretty rare.” Mills said of his school’s three medals. “It’s a lot of hard work and land training too. A lot of kids don’t like the erg but they have to do it.”
Saint Paul’s Emily Stewart, who rowed with Maloney in a coxed four that placed fifth at the Head of the Charles Regatta, was fourth in the singles event at the CSSRA championships.
In the senior women’s CSSRA quad, Saint Paul finished third behind crews from Ottawa (Glebe) and British Columbia (Brentwood). The crew, coached by Werner Verbraeken and head coach Anthony Arcuri, was made up of Kelly O’Connor, Emily Stewart, Marnie McLean, and Cassie Pozzobon.
The seniors in the crew have won many medals over the past four years competing together and welcomed newcomer Stewart as a junior last year. Heading into the CSSRA championships, the quad had won gold at the Mother’s Day Regatta, narrowly missed bronze by three seconds at the Stotesbury Cup, finishing fourth, and won bronze at the American championships in Cooper River, N.J.
O’Connor and Cassie Pozzobon also made the final of the CSSRA 63-kilogram senior women’s double. Attempting to capture their fourth Canadian championship medal together, they came fourth, three seconds out of third. Saint Michael’s Sara Vaughan and Kayla Pacenta were fifth in the race.
O’Connor plans to row at Laurentian University, McLean will attend Nova Southeastern in Florida and plans to row with its successful Division II rowing program and study pre-med biology and Pozzobon will row at McGill University and study engineering.
Also in the senior mens 72-kilogram double, Saint Paul’s Brandon Moll and Greg Simpson missed out on the bronze medal by less than one second. They, along with Connor Gianetto-Hill and Eric Pioli, have worked well together for four years. Moll will row at Queens University studying engineering.