The Brock men's rowing team captured four gold medals at the Head of the Trent in Peterborough on Saturday, Sept. 30.
 
The course is five kilometres in length along the Trent-Severn Waterway.
 
Riley Watson, a first-year Medical Sciences student, captured three gold medals throughout the day.
 
"I was gifted with some beautiful Otonabee conditions in my single race," said Watson, who grew up in Peterborough. "The water was flat, and it was cool outside. These are my favourite conditions to compete in because it makes for some clean rowing."
 
Watson won the men's lightweight single race in a time of 17 minutes and 37 seconds. He outlasted McGill's Victor Rolland and Brendan Edge of Carleton to cross the finish line first.
 
"In the single race, my goal was to push the singles I could see behind me as far away as I could," he said. "I pushed the pace on the front half of the race hard and my plan was to hold the highest pace I could until the cannel and let the finish and the noise from crowd give me a push for the finish."
 
In the men's lightweight double race, Watson and Christopher Gomez secured gold with a time of 16:22 to beat out the Queen's and Carleton crews.
 
Watson also helped the men's lightweight eight win gold with a time of 14:59 alongside Gomez, coxswain Daniel Phillips, Maddox Harrison, Benjamin Molnar, Dalton Sawyer, Matthew Hogan, John Ross and Ethan Mason.
 
Brock finished ahead of Western (15:20) and Toronto (15:52).
 
Brock's men's lightweight four also won gold. The crew consists of coxswain Clara Sebastianelli, Harrison, Mason, Molnar and Dalton.
 
The Badgers recorded a time of 16:50 to hold off a pair of Toronto crews (17:30 and 17:39) for the gold medal.
 
"It's important for us to have a good start to the season. We all believe the results from Trent and Guelph set a good tone for the races we have remaining on our schedule," Watson said. "We all know the work is not done to achieve the goals we've set this year. Our entire team is motivated as we prepare for the Brock Invitational, Head of the Charles, the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Championships and Canadian University Rowing Championships."
 
Up next, the Badgers prepare to host the Brock Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 14 at Henley Island in Port Dalhousie.
 
2023 HEAD OF THE TRENT MEN'S ROWING RESULTS
 
Men's Lightweight Single
1 Brock (Riley Watson), 17:37
2 McGill, 18:26
3 Carleton, 18:28
 
Men's Junior Varsity Four
1 Western, 16:49
2 Carleton, 17:05
3 Brock (Olivia Drava, Matthew Hogan, Tristan Marion, Wyatt Ritchie, Hubert Sze), 17:50
 
Men's Single
1 Western, 19:19
2 Ottawa, 18:38
3 Brock (Ian Doctor), 18:42
7 Brock (Lucas Fogh), 19:27
 
Men's Four
1 Western, 16:12
2 Brock (Daniel Phillips, Elijah Lopez, Jared Boles, Keithan Woodhouse, Josh Ruby), 16:14
3 Ottawa, 16:43
 
Men's Lightweight Four
1 Brock (Clara Sebastianelli, Maddox Harrison, Ethan Mason, Benjamin Molnar and Dalton Sawyer), 16:50
2 Toronto (Barhoush), 17:30
3 Toronto (McDonald), 17:39
 
Men's Double
1 Western, 17:03
2 Montreal, 17:39
3 Carleton, 17:51
5 Brock (Euan Coulson, Flynn Kirwin), 18:10
 
Men's Lightweight Double
1 Brock (Riley Watson, Christopher Gomez), 16:22
2 Queen's, 16:28
3 Carleton, 17:01
 
Men's Novice Eight
1 Western, 13:27
2 Toronto, 13:40
3 RMC, 13:47
8 Brock (Ryan Ciliska, Mathias Beaudoin-Pearson, Isaiah Bultje, Luke Christianson, Adrian Gebura, Noah Hudecki, Jada Brown, Sofia Oliveira-Cardozo and Meghan Vaszko), 14:37
 
Men's Eight
1 Western, 14:26
2 Toronto, 14:48
3 Brock (Clara Sebastianelli, Jared Boles, Keithan Woodhouse, Josh Ruby, Elijah Lopez, Euan Coulson, Ian Doctor, Lucas Fogh, Flynn Kirwin), 15:18
 
Men's Lightweight Eight
1 Brock (Daniel Phillips, Maddox Harrison, Christopher Gomez, Riley Watson, Benjamin Molnar, Dalton Sawyer, Matthew Hogan, John Ross, Ethan Mason), 14:59
2 Western, 15:20
3 Toronto, 15:52