Brock’s men third at Canadians
Brock’s Thomas Markewich and Stephen Harris compete in the men’s lightweight double race at the Canadian University Rowing Championships. Photo by Jayson Childs.
The Brock rowing team garnered a pair of silver medals at the Canadian University Rowing Championships held last Saturday and Sunday at the South Niagara Rowing Club in Welland.
Thomas Markewich and Stephen Harris combined to win a silver medal in the lightweight men’s double and then the two teamed with Jonathan Cinquina, Jared Boles and coxswain Riley Pisek to earn a silver in the lightweight men’s four.
“It’s not the outcome we all wanted, but we still put forth some great racing, and overall, an unforgettable season,” Markewich told the Brock Athletics website.
Brock’s Ontario University Athletics championship men’s team came third in the team standings behind winner Victoria and the University of British Columbia.
”We had a great group of dedicated athletes and coaches this season. They each had that motivation to win OUAs,” Markewich said. “The team all motivated each other which pushed us to go faster and faster. I am so glad to have shared that moment with this amazing group. We are excited to see what improvements we can make for this next season.”
The Badger women ended up fifth behind UBC, Western, Victoria and Queen’s.
“In overall points, the women’s results were consistent with how they placed at the OUA championships so that is good as for the most part it is a new group of ladies with not a lot of experience,” Brock head coach Peter Somerwil said.
Heading into the Canadian championships, he thought Brock’s men would do well.
“We figured we were in the top three but also thought we would have been vying more strongly for first but due to illness we had to make some boating changes for the finals,” Somerwil said. “I think these last-minute changes did hurt our performance but definitely (it was) not the fault of the athletes. Having one athlete suddenly race a third race to replace someone that was ill made it difficult.”
Brock had another athlete who was also sick.
“We are restricted to 12 athletes so (there’s) not many options for substitutions,” Somerwil said. “It is always a risk that illness derails your plans.”
Somerwil felt the men’s and women’s programs from the British Columbia universities were all strong.
“That may partly be a reflection that they were able to already last year train in big boats while here we could only train in singles,” he said. “Also the OUA restricted our official start date for our training camp in September.”
Eight Brock athletes will be competing at the national championships in Victoria this coming weekend. The rest of the team will take a well-deserved break.
“Right now, the main focus for the next couple of weeks is to get caught up in their academics and have a recovery period,” Somerwil said. “I think we had a very good season with good to great results. The cohesion of the entire team and the excitement amongst the athletes was great. The young athletes show a lot of promise for more great performances in the future.”
Somerwil issued a special thank you to the extended rowing community, particularly the Brock rowing alumnus.
“That is where we got the support to allow us to do as well as we did,” he said. “Without them, we could not have run the Brock Invitational Regatta and then three weeks later the Canadian University Championships. We required significantly more volunteers to follow COVID protocols and a normal regatta day requires some 60 volunteers for a full day of racing.”
No Brock athletes or coaches won major awards at the Canadian championships but former Brock rower Stu McKenzie, a coach at University of Ottawa, was co-winner of the women’s coaching award.
Following are complete Brock results:
Mens open single: 5. Jacob Martens.
Lightweight women’s double: 5. Isabella Durcak and Zoe Durcak.
Lightweight men’s single: 4. Connor Dodds.
Open women’s pair: 10. Faith Thomas and Jalyn Mowry.
Open men’s eight: 4. cox Clara Sebastianelli, Jared Boles, Martens, Oskars Rugelis, Jonathan Hickman, William Bryden, Daniel Brophy, Michael Ciepiela and Sam Stewart.
Lightweight women’s coxed four: 5. cox Riley Pisek, Zoe Durcak, Jordan Isnor, Rowan O Neill and Olivia Jose.
Open women’s single: 10. Jordan Kesseler.
Lightweight men’s double: 2. Stephen Harris and Thomas Markewich.
Open men’s pair: 5. Ciepiela and Stewart.
Lightweight women’s single: 6. Isnor.
Lightweight men’s coxed four: 2. cox Pisek, Boles, Jonathan Cinquina, Harris and Markewich.
Open women’s eight: 9. cox Clara Sebastianelli, Isabella Durcak, Jose, Thomas, O Neill, Victoria Collins, Sarah Slattery, Madeline Hingston and Jalyn Mowry.
