Trent Excalibur rowers claim medal haul

Trent Excalibur varsity rowers claimed a gold, three silver and bronze medals at the OUA Championships on Saturday while novice crews also hauled in four medals.

What is normally a two-day event was condensed into one on Friday due to inclement rowing conditions forecast for Saturday on the Royal Canadian Henley Rowing Course.

The varsity men’s program was led by first year student Spencer Kielar who took home gold in the lightweight single and silver in the lightweight double with veteran teammate Dayton Kelly.

The heavyweight 4+, rowed by Daniel Bullock, Ian Holmquist, Shane Willis, Wesley Penney, and coxed by Hailey Guertin, pushed Queen’s to a close finish claiming silver. The four joined teammates, Dylan Coletto, Matthew Dupuis, Kelly and Jordan Hamilton to claim bronze in the heavyweight eight.

First year women’s rower Grace Vanden Broek lined up with two of her teammates from Canada’s U23 quad and posted an exciting silver medal performance in single sculls.

Trent’s novice crews were led by a strong men’s showing. The men’s eight of James Dobbie, Matt Price, Lincoln Pool, Ryan Jameson, Shane Ryan, Andrew Dunkley, Owen Oliva, Logan Latendresse, and coxed by Mark Bisci, won gold.

Soon after, the novice men’s four consisting of Jacob Ferguson, Miguel Cant-Meraz, Sebastian Nicolle, Parker Jelly, and steered by Piper Badurina, rowed their way to a silver medal. The novice women had a strong showing in their final but were unable to best times from the previous race and claimed third.

After such a successful novice season, the novice men’s coaches, Julianna Stonehouse, Mark Moyer, and Kristy Smith were awarded the Novice Men’s Coach of the Year award by the OUA.

Trent rowers race again, this time against the best university crews in Canada, on Nov. 3-4 at Canadian University Rowing Championships in St. Catharines.