The Brock Badgers rowing team battled a stiff headwind to start their season on a strong note this Saturday at the Western Invitational regatta, in London, Ont. The first OUA sanctioned regatta of the season combined a four-kilometre head race, and a 400 metre sprint. Gold Medal Standard, a percentage of their time compared to international standards, ranked crews in 27 different events.

Out of seven total entries, three Brock crews came home with medals. The day started off with Steph Mowder winning the women's varsity heavyweight single with a percentage of 69.05%, completing the head race in 18:32, and the sprint in 2:01. Anike Vanagas finished second with a percentage of 63.63%, with a head race time of 20:10, and a sprint time of 2:11.

In the men's 8+, the crew of David de Groote, Matthew Finley, Will Bryden, Matthew Wortley, Lucien Brodeur, Patrick Branch, Zak Lewis, Justin Buttigieg, and Earl Cabaluna finished first with a percentage of 77.20%, the highest of the day. This included a time of 12:50 in the head race, and 1:16 in the sprint. The crew defeated the defending national champions, Western University, by over 2%. The second Brock 8+ finished sixth in the event, posting a percentage of 67.6%.

The men's lightweight 8+ finished second in their event to Western, posting a percentage of 69.3%, and the women's 4+ posted a 68.9%, finishing second to Western.

The final event Brock was entered in, the lightweight women's 8+, came out victorious in commanding fashion. The crew consisting of Sarah-Jane Mambella, Samantha Augestine, Lauren Piedl, Katie Booth, Miranda Prekaski, Katie Ayres, Lizzie Fuller, Naseem Majzoubi, and Laura Court posted a 68.1%, beating second place McMaster by over 5%.

As the racing seasons gets underway, all crews will be racing next weekend at the Head of the Welland.