The Brock men's rowing team kicked off the season with a gold medal haul at the Guelph Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 23.
 
The Badgers claimed a total of six gold medals at Guelph Lake Conservation Area, which featured variable conditions of calm waters and occasional strong winds. Crews from Brock, McMaster, Western, Guelph, Toronto and Waterloo competed.
 
Connor Dodds, a third-year Computing and Business student from Regina, Saskatchewan, helped the men's lightweight eight and men's lightweight four to win gold medals in each of their races.

"It was a great start to the season. We have a lot of new student-athletes on the team this year, so this weekend was a bit of a preview run for us and it was very successful," Dodds said. "The first-years showed a lot of potential and the team is looking just as strong as last year."
 
Last season, the men's team captured its second consecutive Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Rowing Championship, and 13^th provincial banner in program history.
 
Dodds and the crew of Christopher Gomez, Maddox Harrison, Benjamin Molnar, Sawyer Dalton, Archer LaRochelle, John Ross, Ethan Mason and coxswain Daniel Phillips posted a time of five minutes and 45 seconds to outlast Western by six seconds.
 
In the lightweight men's four, Dodds, Gomez, Harrison, Mason and Phillips teamed up to post a first-place time of 6:15, which was 23 seconds faster than second-place Western.
 
"In the lightweight four, we wanted to show some strength and win by as much as possible," added Dodds. "The wind was very strong during the final and the conditions were difficult but we fought through it and pulled off an important win."
 
Charles-Etienne Tabet also secured two gold medals during the men's lightweight single and men's lightweight double. The second-year Business Economics student from Boucherville, Quebec registered a time of 7:01 to hold off James Rourke of Guelph (7:11) in the single race.
 
He then teamed up with Riley Watson to win the double's race in a time of 6:39. Watson was also one part of the gold-medal men's lightweight pair alongside LaRochelle. The duo overcame Western with a time of 6:56.
 
In the open men's double, Keithan Woodhouse and Ian Doctor placed first for gold by narrowly defeating Western by three seconds (6:38).
 
2023 GUELPH INVITATIONAL MEN'S ROWING RESULTS
 
Men's Open Pair
1 Western, 6:45
2 Brock (Elijah Lopez and Jared Boles), 6:50
3 Toronto, 7:09
4 Guelph 7:29
 
Men's Lightweight Single
1 Brock (Charles-Etienne Tabet), 7:01
2 Guelph, 7:11
3 Toronto, 7:28
4 Western, 7:28
 
Men's Open Double
1 Brock (Keithan Woodhouse and Ian Doctor), 6:38
2 Western Borritt, 6:41
3 McMaster, 7:29
4 Toronto Rudy, 7:39
5 Western Crowle, 7:05
6 Guelph, 7:23
7 Toronto Brar, 7:39
 
Men's Lightweight Eight
1 Brock (Coxswain Daniel Phillips, Connor Dodds, Chris Gomez, Maddox Harrison, Benjamin Molnar, Sawyer Dalton, Archer LaRochelle, John Ross and Ethan Mason), 5:45
2 Western, 5:51
3 Toronto, 5:56
 
Men's Open Four
1 Western, N/A
2 Toronto, N/A
3 Western Greenwood, N/A
4 McMaster Sivadas, N/A
5 Brock (coxswain Ryan Ciliska, Euan Coulson, Joshua Ruby, Lucas Fogh and Flynn Kirwin), 6:42
6 Guelph
7 Brock (coxswain Serafina Dell, Matthew Hogan, Wyatt Ritchie, Hubert Sze and Tristan Marion), 7:00
8 McMaster Caputo
 
Men's Lightweight Double
1 Brock (Riley Watson, Charles-Etienne Tabet), 6:39
2 Waterloo, 6:45
3 Guelph Rourke, 6:47
4 Western, 7:02
5 Toronto, 7:13
6 McMaster, 7:34
7 Guelph Shew, 7:45
 
Men's Open Single
1 Western, 7:08
2 Western Mels-Williams, 7:14
3 Toronto, 7:41
4 Waterloo, 7:43
 
Men's Lightweight Four
1 Brock (coxswain Daniel Phillips, Connor Dodds, Chris Gomez, Maddox Harrison and Ethan Mason), 6:15
2 Western 6:38
3 Brock (coxswain Olivia Drava, Sawyer Dalton, Benjamin Molnar, John Ross, Matthew Hogan), 6:41
4 Toronto, 6:53
 
Men's Open Eight
1 Western, 5:36
2 Brock (coxswain Clara Sebastianelli, Jared Boles, Keithan Woodhouse, Joshua Ruby, Elijah Lopez, Euan Coulson, Ian Doctor, Lucas Fogh and Flynn Kirwin), 5:45
3 Toronto, 5:49
 
Men's Lightweight Pair
1 Brock (Riley Watson, Archer LaRochelle), 6:56
2 Western, 7:07
3 McMaster, 7:23
4 Toronto, 7:35