VICTORIA - The University of British Columbia Thunderbirds rowing programs defended both of their titles with a clean sweep at the Canadian University Rowing Championship this weekend at Elk Lake.
 
For the men, it was their sixth national championship and the banner was the third for the women. The men have now moved into a three-way tie with the University of Victoria Vikes and University of Western Ontario Mustangs for the most national championships in the event's 22-year history. 


 
The Thunderbirds set themselves up in great position with impressive runs during the time trials on Saturday and capitalized with several top three finishes in the A final on championship Sunday.


 
In the final men's race of the day, the Mustangs edged the Thunderbirds by 0.19 seconds to win the open lightweight coxed four. Even though they finished second, the Thunderbirds won the men's national championship with a team total of 110 points. The Mustangs placed second in points with 108. The Brock University Badgers took home bronze with 91 points and the Vikes finished fourth with 76 points. Rounding out the top five was the Queen's University Gaels with 46 points.

The Thunderbird Women topped the field with 115 points to UVic's 111 and Western's 93.
 
Weather conditions were nearly perfect on Sunday. The weather was cool with cloud cover. The water was flat and rippled by a slight crosswind. The conditions didn't impact any of the races at any point on the weekend.


 
With all racing proving critical to supporting to the aggregate points, the Thunderbird's efforts were highlighted by two gold medals in the Men's 1x by Karl Zimmermann and the Men's 8+. The women were very strong winning four of their six events. The lightweight women took gold in all their events, the 4+, 2x and 1x and Katie Clark took the women's single with an outstanding win.


 
UBC's light men's 4+ was a fight to the finish with UBC leading for most of the race but was pushed out by Western in the last 250 meters. The last race of the day was an exciting Women's 8+ with UBC, Western and Uvic charging in lockstep to the finish line. In the tightest race of the regatta, Western got their bowball across first, followed by UVic then UBC in a near photo finish with 0.9 seconds separating the medalists.


 
Out of the 28 person team, there were 11 athletes who were competing at CUs for the first time. The incredible coaching staff was integral to the wins of the weekend and Mike Pearce received the Men's Coach of the Year Award for the second year in a row. 


 
"Over my time here I've felt our team come together as a strong community and it has really paid off" said graduating CUs veteran Julia Lindsay who has won nine medals over her five years of eligibility with the Thunderbirds. It was a CURC record-setting 4th National Championship in a row for the men, their 5th in six years and the women's first back to back title and third all-time.

UBC Men's finishes:

1x Gold Karl Zimmermann
LM 1x 6th Hugh Graham
8+ Gold Cox Patricia Ye, 8 Ryan Beach, 7 Clark Schultz, 6 Sean van Gessel, 5 Karl Zimmermann, 4 Quinten Schmidt, 3 Thomas Lynch, 2 Brendan Wall, Bow Davey Ross
LM 2x Bronze Stroke Ivan Rybkin Bow Ethan Enns
M2- Silver Stroke Clark Schultz Bow Brendan Wall
LM 4+ Silver Cox Isabelle Barlow, 4 Ivan Rybkin, 3 Hugh Graham, 2 Ethan Enns Bow Max Nadeau


UBC Women's finishes:

LW 2x Gold Stroke Renee LaFreniere 1 Emma Starr
W2- 4th Stroke Caitlin Greber Bow Lucy Vincent-Smith
LW4+ Gold Cox Victoria Schuster 4 Renee LaFreniere 3 Julia Lindsay 2 Emma Starr 1 Grace Hardwicke-Brown
W1x Gold Katie Clark
LW1x Gold Julia Lindsay
W8+ Bronze Cox Alex Birkenshaw 8 Caitlin Greber 7 Lucy Vincent-Smith 6 Michelle Wesolowski 5 Claire Armstrong 4 Paula Cameron 3 Katie Clark 2 Caitlin Lawrence 1 Michaela Ashlee

Full Results here

Points total here