The Otago rowers each won a prestigious red coat on the final day of the New Zealand championships at Lake Ruataniwha on Saturday.
Matehaere (Otago University) and Key (Dunstan) won the women’s premier coxless quad sculls in an Ashburton crew alongside Veronica Wall (Ashburton) and Mackenzie Tuffin (Star).
They won in 7min 0.31sec and were 2sec clear of runners-up from Canterbury.
Earlier, Matehaere was part of the Avon crew that won silver in the women’s premier coxed eight, while Key won bronze in the women’s senior single sculls.
It capped off a marvellous week on the water for Otago crews and Dunstan rounded out their competition with 18 medals.
Henry Clatworthy, Matt O’Meara, Sam Barnett and Matt King were crowned the men’s senior coxless quad sculls champions, finishing in 6min 20.85sec.
Clatworthy and O’Meara joined Jack Pearson and Angus Kenny to win silver in the men’s premier coxless quad sculls in 6min 24.32sec.
Harrison Thode, Roland Ozanne, Oliver Hamilton and Jelte Stuke won gold in the men’s club coxless quad sculls in 6min 27.24sec, and Dana Leishman won silver in the women’s intermediate single sculls in 9min 47.33sec.
Leishman joined Charlotte McKenzie Ayala Cunningham, Charlotte Crosbie and cox Fred Phillips to secure bronze in the women’s intermediate coxed quad sculls.
McKenzie, Cunningham, Crosbie and Phillips then jumped in a boat with Summer Phillips, Mikayla Olivier, Meg King, Milla Okane and Elizabeth Engstrom and picked up bronze in the women’s intermediate coxed eight in 7min 30.17sec.
Oamaru won silver in that event. Their crew of Tessa Wright, Emily Wainwright, Bridget Spittle, Indeg Jones-Hogan, Lara Menefy, Kaia Burney, Catherine McIver, Karlina Steiner — the latter four from Bay of Plenty — and cox Pippa McMillan finished in 7min 28.70sec.
Oamaru had a brilliant finished to the competition as well, picking up five medals on the final day.
Summer Colombus, Payton Dickson, Laura Aker, Gemma Aker, Bailey Pearson, Ava Goodall, Sasha Wright, Isabelle Wainwright and Quinn Anderson won gold in the women’s novice coxed eight finished in 7min 35.63sec — 11sec ahead of their only opponents, Waikato.
Ike Newlands-Carter, Cash Paterson, Shaun Lucey, Samson Isbister and Greer Dickson snagged bronze in the men’s novice coxed four finishing in 7min 34.13sec.
Newlands-Carter and Paterson also won bronze in the men’s novice double sculls in 8min 31sec.
Dickson was the then the cox for Cody Marshall, Ned Newlands-Carter, Lachlan Wright, Jett Rogers, Stuart Isbister, Patrick Spillane, Kouper Lynch and Jacob Harrison who won bronze in the men’s club coxed eight in 6min 12.82sec.
North End finished on a high winning two medals — including the men’s novice double sculls title in emphatic fashion.
Ethan Shirley and Ashton MacNee dominated the event to win gold in 8min 12.72sec, 11sec ahead of Hawke’s Bay.
Ciara Paterson, Isla Nicholson, Georgia Graham and Lola Castles won silver in the women’s club coxless four in 8min 4.55sec.
