T-Bird men win Canadian University Rowing Championship

There's few things in life that please me more than a row of navy blue with gold trimmed crew shirts ripping down he course ahead of all comers.

T-Bird men win Canadian University Rowing Championship

VICTORIA

A year ago, it was the UBC Thunderbird women winning the Canadian University Rowing Championship. This time around, the powerhouse UBC men claimed top honours, fending off a strong challenge from Western Ontario and Queen’s to take the title in the final race, the men’s eights, at Elk Lake UBC started Sunday's four-boat 'A' final on the right foot, winning the men's pairs with a dominant performance from national team veterans Kyle Hamilton and Ben Rutledge. Rob Weitemeyer, also a national team member, followed up with a convincing win in the men's single sculls, making it his second sculling title at the CURCs, having won previously in 2002.

The UBC lightweight men had to hang on in a deep and competitive field in the coxless fours. Rich Cotter, Julian Lamoreux, John Page and Andrew Poole finished in a solid fifth place, and in the light men's singles, Page rowed to strong seventh place. These finished added six valuable points to the T-Birds’ mounting total.

While UBC dominated the heavyweight small boats, Western and Queen’s were picking up consistent top finishes across the board. By the last race of the day the scene was set with Queen's, Western and UBC in a tight points race, leaving the eights to determine the national champion.

To qualify for the finals, UBC narrowly edged out Western, UVic and Queen’s in Saturday's time trial, which was raced over a short 1,000 metres due to rough water and high winds. The final was raced over Elk Lake's 1,850m course. UBC was able to step out early, powering off the line to gain a half-boat-length advantage over Western by the first 750 metres. UBC slowly started to build on this lead, while the Western crew began to concern itself with Queen’s, who were determined to make it a three-horse race. UBC managed to draw clear of Western and Queen's by the finish to win in a time of 5:36.77. Western finished second in 5:41.84, and Queen’s followed in 5:41.97. The UBC eights was made of Cox Jane Maxwell, stroke Rob Weitemeyer, Ben Rutledge, Kyle Hamilton, Thorsten Schmidt, Ben Dove, Chris Kemppainen, Alex Doucette and Curtis Dearden.

The T-Birds collected 56 points overall to claim the men’s title over Western (47) and Queen’s (45). UVic and Brock rounded out the top five with 34 points apiece. On the women's side UBC fought hard, qualifying for four of six 'A' finals with some very competitive finishes in an attempt to defend their 2004 title. But Western and UVic would prove too much to handle with Western sweeping all three heavyweight events and UVic, who covered all the events with solid finishes, ultimately reclaiming the national title from the T-Birds. UBC's Jen Andrews turned in a silver-medal performance in the heavy single sculls. Lailey Wallace and Julie Miller won bronze in the light double sculls and the heavyweight eights would also win bronze.

UBC (63) finished eight points up on Western, while UBC (36), Queen’s (30) and Brock (25) rounded out the top five. UBC coach Craig Pond was voted the 2004-05 Canadian university coach of the year.