The Guelph Gryphons Rowing Team co-hosted the Canadian University Rowing Championships (CURCs) in Welland on November 5th and 6th. This year 13 Gryphons competed against the best student-athletes in the country. The weather was perfect, the regatta ran smoothly and the women's team placed an astonishing sixth place in overall team points. 
 
CURCs is a unique regatta where only specific events are fielded – the single, pair, eight, lightweight single, lightweight double and lightweight four - and teams are limited to sending 12 rowers of each gender. On the first day of the regatta time trials were held and crews were put against the clock to seed the finals that occurred the following day.
 
Carly Zanatta capped off an amazing season with two more medals. She raced the single and the lightweight single, earning a silver and bronze respectively. Kaitie Dennis and Sarah Vantfoort competed in the lightweight double. They raced hard and won the B Final decisively, placing them 7th overall. The eight made up of Ainsleigh Hennig (coxie), Olivia Shotyk, Megan Kamachi, Zyra Edwards, Kerin Hudson, Erika Schwass, Christine Flaherty, Kelsey Hill and Chantal Dzisiak, showed some of their best rowing of the season. The eight proved to be a deep field and the Gryphons came up 11th. Megan Kamachi and Olivia Shotyk also raced the pair. Because these two raced in the four during the regular season, this was their first time competing in this event. They took some crews by surprise and rowed well to a solid 3rd place in the B Final, earning 9th overall.
 
The banquet ended the weekend on Sunday night. Athlete's of the year went to Max Lattimer and Hilary Janssens of UBC, who both went to Rio this summer. And UBC and Western won the men's and women's team banners respectively. Team points are calculated based on the combination of the performances of all crews at the regatta. On the women's side there were 17 teams in total and the gryphons placed sixth! Another award given out is the CURC President's Award. This award went to our very own and much deserving, Dave Leger (Head Coach) for his outstanding contributions to the sport. Dave's leadership and work ethic are the heart and soul of Gryphon Rowing and he played a huge role in hosting CURCs.
 
Congratulations Dave and all Gryphon competitors on a strong finish to the season. Athletes will now clean up the boathouse and bring ergs to the athletic centre to prepare for the start of winter training. Good luck to all graduating athletes and thank you to the coaches, volunteers, friends, and family for all of the support this season!