A Century of Brentwood vs UBC
My name is Brian Carr and I am one of the coaches here ar Brentwood. Exactly 100 years ago today, April 26, 1924, the first Brentwood Varsity crew had their first official race. Across the other side of Finlayson Arm in Brentwood Bay where the original School was located, these two crews raced over the one-and-a-half-mile race course.
Our opponents that day were from the University of British Columbia who were older and more experienced. In the end, despite a valiant effort by the school crew, Brentwood lost to UBC by one length
Fast forward 100 years.
We would like to thank the 2023 Canadian University Champions, the University of British Columbia, for making a second trip, 100 years later, to race against Brentwood’s Varsity Men’s Four. 100 years ago it was in a straight four. Today the two coxed fours will race over the last 500 meters of our race course.
From the University of British Columbia:
From New York. New York and the Portside Rowing Club, majoring in Communications and graduating in 2026 is 2023 CURC National Champion Cox Oscar Wolstenholme.
In stroke seat from Fort McMurray Alberta, Axel Ewashko. Axel is a 2019 Brentwood Grad and Boathouse Captain. He is graduating from UBC in forestry and graduating later this year. He is a four-time National Champion and current Captain of the UBC Men’s team. He was a member of the 2023 Canadian Under 23 Men’s 4-, and he is currently competing for a seat in the 2024 University World Games Canadian Mens 4-. Welcome back Axel!
In three seat from Vancouver, BC and St Georges School, 2024 grad in Chemical Engineering, Julian Black. A six time Canadian University National Champion between 2021 and 2023, Julian has competed for Canada at the Under 23 level for the past three years.
In two seat from Canmore Alberta, majoring in forestry with a graduation date in 2026, 2022 Brentwood grad, Alec Dorward. At Brentwood Alec was our Boathouse Captain and competed at the Canadian high school championships three times. Welcome home Alec!
In bow seat from Victoria BC and the Gorge Narrows Rowing Club, graduating later this year in Kinesiology, UBC Mens Rowing Captain Aidan Della Siega. Aidan is a two-time Canadian Universities National Champion and is currently competing for a seat in the 2024 University World Games Canadian Mens 4-.
The head coach of the UBC Men’s team and seven time Canadian Universities Coach of the Year over the past 18 years, Mike Pearce.
Representing the Brentwood Crew
In the coxswain’s seat Grade 11 student and 2 time national champion, Sienna Gulevich.
In stroke seat, Grade 11 student and 2 national champion, William Hawkins.
In three seat Grade 11 student and 2023 National Champion Finn Dahlstrom.
In two seat Grade 12 student, Boathouse Captain, 2023 National Champion who just pulled 6:07 on the erg last week and will be rowing for the University of Washington Huskies in the fall, Jed Grieve.
In bow seat Grade 11 student and two time National Champion Marcus Hogan
The Head Coach is 1996 Brentwood Grad, four time Olympian, including a Silver medal in the Men’s Pair at the 2008 Beijing Olympics - David Calder.
With this race completed, we officially celebrate 100 years of Brentwood Rowing and welcome our friends from Oregon, Washington and from all regions of British Columbia.
A special welcome to Tony Carr, Head of Rowing at Brentwood 1964 - 2003. Referred to as the Admiral of the Brentwood fleet all those years, he was also one of the co-founders of the Brentwoood Regatta in 1971 with John Queen who could not be here with us today.
52 years ago Brentwood was the first boarding school in Canada to go coed. The first coed Brentwood Regatta was in 1978. We look forward to celebrating this milestone in 2028.
In closing I would like to recognize two groups.
First - the 300 faculty and staff and all 560 students of Brentwood College School. Thank you for making this event happen.
There are over 1200 athletes rowing in 174 races over the next three days. Ms Spencer Manton is our Rowing Club coordinator, Regatta Chair and lead coach of our senior women’s program. 365 days ago she started planning this regatta. A special thanks to Ms Manton for her tireless efforts in making this world-class event.
Best of luck to all the crews racing this weekend.