With the school year quickly approaching, the McMaster rowing team is gearing up for another season of competition in the OUA circuit. The team will once again be competing at regattas in London, Peterborough, St Catherines, and Guelph during September and October, ahead of the OUA finals at the Henley course in St Catharines. In the starting gates, Marauder athletes will be lining up against the top crews from Brock, Western, Guelph, Toronto, UOIT, Ryerson, Queen's, Trent, Ottawa and McGill.
This year, the team will also be sending its top crews to Victoria, British Columbia to compete in the Canadian University Rowing Championships from October 31st to November 2nd. This regatta will provide crews with experience racing the fiercest crews from across the country, with the chance of bringing home national championship medals.
The McMaster Rowing team has three levels of competition. The varsity team competes in the OUA Championship Regatta, and the junior varsity team competes in the OUA Development Regatta.
The McMaster rowing team also has one of the most competitive novice teams in the province. The novice team is for people who have never rowed before, and you can know absolutely nothing about the sport to try out. Over half of the top Marauder rowing varsity athletes started this way, and are now competing at the national level. In fact, former McMaster rowing team member Doug Csima started as a Mac novice, and progressed to the varsity, provincial, and then national teams, winning an Olympic medal in the 2012 Olympic Games.
The novice team, along with the varsity and junior varsity teams, competes in all of the regattas in the lead up to the OUAs, and then competes with the junior varsities in the OUA Development Regatta.
If you're interested trying out for the Novice team, find us at Clubsfest – wearing bright yellow shirts and carrying 12 foot oars around. If you can't make that date, then we will have tryouts on Friday, September 5th. Please show up with athletic clothing, ready to show us what you've got!
Contact Head Coach Steffan Wagner for more details: leander.manager@gmail.com
