Mustangs take to the water Friday to defend OUA Rowing Championship titles

BURLINGTON, Ont. – The Western Mustang men and women will take to the water looking to repeat as provincial champions when the 2016 OUA Rowing Championships begin on Friday, Oct. 28 at the Royal Canadian Henley Rowing Course in St. Catharines, Ont.

This year, the OUA championships will be hosted jointly by ROWONTARIO and Ontario University Athletics.

At the 2015 OUA championship, the Western women dominated the field, taking home six gold and four silver medals for a total of 590 team points to finish ahead of the second place Queen's Gaels (290 points) and bronze medal winning Brock Badgers (261 points).

While Mustangs are typically known for their speed on land, it was a successful afternoon on the water for the team as they won the women's 8+, 4+, lightweight 8+, lightweight 4+, pair and double.

Western enters the OUA championship this weekend as once again the team to beat having hoisted the Mrs. W. Lathrop Challenge Trophy, which was donated in 1976 by Mrs. W. Lathrop through Brock University, in four of the past five seasons and a record 24 times since 1973.

A name to watch for the Mustangs on Saturday is 2014 OUA Female Rower of the Year Jill Moffatt (Bethany, Ont.) as she looks to lead Western to their fourth straight OUA women's rowing title, a feat that no other school has managed to accomplish.

Last year, the Badgers picked up a pair of gold medals in the women's double and lightweight pair, while the uOttawa Gee-Gees struck gold in the lightweight single.  Laurentian Voyageurs standout Emily Jago (Sudbury, Ont.) is back to defend her single title.

Representing her hometown Voyageurs, the 2015 OUA Female Rower of the Year enters the event as a favourite to repeat coming off a recent gold medal winning performance at the Head of the Trent regatta.

On the men's side, the Western Mustangs will also take to the water on Saturday as the team to beat.  Over the past seven seasons, the Mustangs have alternated titles with the Badgers, with Western hoisting the P.C. Fitz-James Trophy in 2009, 2011 and 2013 before last year's victory.  History would tell you that it is Brock's turn to win the banner, but don't tell that to Western.

In a tight race between the Mustangs and Badgers a season ago, the final race of the afternoon was needed to determine a winner as Western prevailed with 501 points to finish just 33 points ahead of Brock.  The Badgers took home silver with 468 points, while the Trent Excalibur placed third with 292 points.

On their way to victory, Western won four gold (lightweight 8+, lightweight 4+, lightweight pair and single) and four silver (heavyweight 8+, heavyweight 4+, heavyweight pair and heavyweight double).

Brock (heavyweight 8+, heavyweight 4+ and heavyweight pair) and Trent (lightweight single, lightweight double and heavyweight double) enter Saturday's competition as the defending champions in three individual events each.

If the Mustangs successfully defend their championship title, they will become the first team since Western actually completed a three-peat between 2005-2007 to repeat as OUA champions. 

The hometown Brock Badgers would like nothing more than to hoist the P.C. Fitz-James Trophy for the 11^th time in program history.  However, with the graduation of 2015 Rower of the Year Dave De Groot, the task becomes that much taller.

After a third place finish a season ago, the Trent Excalibur hope to find themselves on the top step of the podium Friday evening for the first time since 1985.        

ROWONTARIO is recognized by the Ontario Ministry of Health Promotion as the not-for-profit governing body for rowing in the Province of Ontario.  At its inception, the Ontario Rowing Association (whose trade name became ROWONTARIO in 2001) had nine member clubs and some 500 active rowers.  However, today there are over 8,000 active rowers in Ontario.

OUA gold, silver, bronze will be presented to all crew members and coxswains.  Team championship banners and coach of the year awards will be presented at the boathouse at the conclusion of the regatta.

Due to the potential of inclimate weather, racing has been moved from Saturday to Friday.  For an updated schedule of events, click here.

Visit OUA.ca or follow @OUAsport and @ROWONTARIO on Twitter for updates throughout the championship.