The Otago University novice four performed like experienced oarsmen at the Otago rowing championships at the weekend.
Greg Crookes, Wills Lynton, Ed Styles and Adam Harris won their first Otago titles in the novice four and quadruple sculls at Lake Ruataniwha yesterday.
The win in the four was most impressive because they beat the strong Avon crew from Christchurch by a massive 28 seconds.
They handled the rough water like veterans and when they applied pressure in the last 500m the Avon crew had no answer.
The Otago University club won its third title at the regatta when Crookes and Lynton won the novice double sculls.
The men's club four of Matt McGovern, Matt Smaill, Adam Garden and Pete McDowell were second.
The university club's impressive showing was helped by the women's crew of Hannah Baddock, Chelsea Oliver, Loren Mathewson and Kim Scott, which finished third in the club four and quadruple sculls.
Strong westerly winds caused a two-hour delay and reduced racing to 1500m on Saturday and forced an early end to the two-day regatta yesterday.
Dunstan had a strong regatta and won three titles.
The men's under-17 four of Josh Drummond, Jared MacLachlan, Ethan Edmunds-Scott, Bradley Thompson and cox Isaiah Garr were always in control of their race.
The women's under-17 double sculls of Leah Morait and Caitlin Lowe applied pressure over the last 500m to win the title.
Dunstan's third win came in the men's under-16 quadruple sculls (Isaac Scherp, Jordan Kane, Reed Frewen, Mat Enright and cox Ben Fisher).
Zoe McBride (Otago) had a convincing win in the women's under-17 single sculls.
Her time of 9min 31.09sec to beat Erica Taylor (Timaru) was impressive and will give her confidence for the big races after the Christmas break.
McBride teamed with Heather Duggan to finish third in the under-17 double sculls, the event in which, at under-15 level, they won bronze at last season's Maadi Cup for Kavanagh College.
The Otago club's Jordan Saville and Clay Forward finished second in the men's under-19 pair, and Jack O'Leary and Bryce Abernathy were runners-up in the men's under-16 double sculls and the novice double sculls.
Greg Redai and Eachann Bruce (Wanaka) won the men's under-16 double sculls, while club-mate Lee Martin was third in the under-17 single sculls.
Port United dominated the Masters women's event, with Robyn Cameron and Imogen Coxhead winning the double sculls from club-mates Faye Forgie and Jan Brosnahan.
