Row, row, row your gold...

‘Yep, we did it!! Gold!," was the Nov. 4 email greeting from Winnipeg’s Meghan Montgom­ery, who’s crew had just the day before won a gold medal at the World Rowing Championships currently being held in New Zealand.

Rowing in the LTA 4+ Paralympic Category, Montgomery and her crew mates Laura Comeau (cox) (St. Catharines), Victoria Nolan (Toronto), David Blair (Ottawa) and Tony Theriault (Nanaimo) finished first in 3:36.52, with Great Britain second in 3:37.08 and Germany in bronze position in 3:39.65. It was an exciting race with Canada coming from third to first over the 1,000-metre race on Lake Karapiro.

"It was an intense race all the way to the bitter end, but we knew it was going to be, so we dug deep, went for it and came out on top," said Montgomery on Rowing Canada's website, of Canada's first-ever adaptive World gold-medal performance. "We were prepared to win today!"

Montgomery said they had expected that Great Britain and Germany hadn't given it their all in the heats, and said, "they proved us right off the start.

"We actually missed our first stroke! But we just kept moving, and gaining speed.

"It was only in the last few strokes that we pushed our bow ball out in front of Great Britain, and those last few stokes felt like an eternity, but so worth it!!"

— — —

Coming off of a 4-1 win Friday, the Manitoba Bisons men's hockey team was looking for a Canada West sweep over the University of Regina Cougars, Saturday, at the Max Bell Centre, and they got it by a score of 6-1.

Bisons divided up the scoring equally in Saturday's game with Blair Macaulay, Greg Beller, Nolan Waker, Kyle Howarth, Travis Mealy and Wes Pawluck scoring the goals. In Friday's game, Howarth, Macaulay, Beller and Jared Walker scored for Manitoba.

— — —

In another hockey sweep, the Bison women dumped Regina 10-0 on Saturday in Regina, after a 5-1 victory over the Cougars on Friday.

Two-goal performances Saturday were turned in by Nellie Minshull, Rachele Bosc and Kristy Magerar. Singles were scored by Kristin Cockerill, Tammy Brade, Meagan Vestby and Amy Coates.

Leitte Klassen stopped 19 Regina shots for the shutout.

— — —

Canada settled for a silver medal Friday, falling 6-3 to Finland, and losing 2-0 in the best-of-three World Ringette Championship in Tampere, Finland. The Canadians lost the opening game of the series 6-5 in overtime. The U.S. earned bronze by beating Sweden.

— — —

A game-high 23 points by Catie Gooch powered the University of Winnipeg Wesmen women to a Canada West basketball 55-51 victory over the Calgary Dinos, and a two-game sweep at the Duckworth Centre Saturday.

The victory improves the team's record to 3-0.

Gooch, who also led on Friday with 15 points to pace the Wesmen to a 60-56 win, finished the contest with five three-pointers, five rebounds and was a perfect six-for-six from the free-throw line. Stephanie Kleysen recorded her third straight double-double, scoring 13 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.

In men's action, the Wesmen split their games with the Dinos, losing 76-72 Saturday and winning 78-67 on Friday. Nick Lother led the Wesmen in scoring Saturday with 27 points, including four-three pointers. Nolan Gooding had 17 points and 12 rebounds. Benny Iko was the top Wesman Friday night, scoring 18 points and collecting 10 rebounds.

— — —

Canada West women's volleyball action on the weekend in Calgary saw the Dinos and Wesmen split their games, with the Dinos winning Saturday 3-1 (25-22, 25-12, 22-25, 25-20), and the Wesmen drawing first blood on Friday 3-2 (25-18, 16-25, 13-25, 25-20, 15-11).

Carleen Kruschel led the Wesmen both nights, with 12 kills and 15 defensive digs on Saturday.

In men's volleyball, the Wesmen were swept by the Dinos, losing Saturday 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-19), after dropping Friday's game 3-1 (25-16, 23-25, 25-14, 25-17). Ty Loewen led the Wesmen Saturday with 10 kills, while on Friday, Matt Dueck led with 10.

— — —

The Manitoba Bisons swept their two Canada West men's volleyball games on the weekend, beating the Regina Cougars Saturday 3-0 (25-11, 25-17, 25-16), at the Investors Group Athletic Centre. On Friday the Herd won 3-0 (25-18, 25-19, 25-17).

Dane Pischke led Manitoba on Saturday with 14 kills and setter Chris Komishon had 28 assists. The leader Friday night was Pischke again with a game-high 13 kills (.579 hitting percentage).

The Bison women split their games with the Cougars, losing 3-1 (17-25, 22-25, 25-22, 22-25) on Saturday, after winning 3-1 (25-23, 25-10, 23-25, 25-21) on Friday.

— — —

Midfielder Carrie Nash, is the lone Manitoba Bison (1-9-4) to receive post- season honours from the Canada West women's soccer conference.

The 21-year-old, fourth-year Bison was named as a second team all-star.

Nash was the leading scorer for the Bisons during the 2010 campaign. She was tied for 10th in Canada West with seven points (four goals, three assists) and tied for fifth-most conference assists at three.

allan.besson@freepress.mb.ca