ROWERS BRING HOME MEDALS FOR MOTHER DAY

Rowers from Simcoe Composite, Holy Trinity and Port Dover brought home two gold and two bronze medals from the Mother’s Day Regatta in St. Catharines last weekend.

Anna Ardiel from SCS finished first in a seven boat field in the Senior Women’s Single (63kg) event. Ardiel was quick off the start and built up a commanding lead by the finish. According to coach Sue Fairley, “Anna deserves this. She has been working so hard. It was a pleasure to watch her. She just made it look effortless.” Laura Fisher of Holy Trinity advanced to the finals by finishing first in her six boat heat, posting the fastest heat of the day in the Senior Women’s Single Open event. In the final, Fisher fought for the lead in the second 500 meter and never let it go finishing first with open water over the second place finisher. “To win in St. Catharines – the rowing capital of Canada – is no easy task – especially in the senior categories” said Fairley. “Both Anna and Laura have been rowing now for several years competitively. They’ve stuck it out through some tough times but it’s starting to pay off for them both. They proved today they are contenders!”

Ross Fairley of Port Dover Composite advanced to the finals in the Senior Men’s Single (72kg) event by placing second in his heat. In the final, Fairley won bronze and was within striking distance of second place. Nick Ryerse of Simcoe Composite also advanced to the final in the Senior Men’s Single (72kg) event and placed sixth overall. Robbie Puddy and Terry Lovegrove of Simcoe Composite also advanced to the finals in the Junior Men’s Double event by placing second in their heat and won bronze in their final.

Lauren Wynveen, Kayla Horvat, Marie Veltri and Laura Szigatti of Holy Trinity rowed in the Senior Women’s Quad event and placed 5th in a six boat race while Tim Haviland also of Holy Trinity placed fifth in one of the Senior Men’s Single (72kg) heats.

Over seventy high schools from across southern Ontario as well as northern New York and Ohio competed at the annual Mother’s Day Regatta. According to Jim Dover President Silver Lake Rowing Club “This was a great day for Silver Lake. We advanced to the finals in four out of five heats and medaled in four out of seven entries. A lot of hard work by rowers, coaches and volunteers over several years paid off today!”

Local high school rowers have next weekend off in the regatta circuit but will resume racing in Welland on the long weekend. Fisher and Fairley will be rowing in Princeton New Jersey at the American high school championships in the last weekend in May. The high school rowing season concludes with the Canadian Secondary School Championships in June.