Competing against the McGill University Rowing Club in a renewed rivalry series known as 'The Challenge', the University of Toronto Varsity Blues rowing team claimed their second consecutive Terry & Aileen Stevens Cup as overall winners on Saturday (May 4) morning at the Argonaut Rowing Club in Toronto.

With the return of 'The Challenge' in 2023, U of T added a second consecutive overall victory this spring by posting the lowest cumulative time from all four races on the day: women's reserve, men's reserve, women's eights, men's eights. Last year the Blues swept all four races to claim the inaugural Stevens Cup.

The Barber Pole (winner of the men's eights)

McGill 7:34.4
(cox: Paige McCallum, Jacob Lofaro, Edison Luke, Ayoub Sabri, Angus Burke, Brennan King, Patrice Legare, Markus Maile, Victor Rolland)

Toronto 7:45.8
(cox: Katy Myler, Kenny Kimmins, John McDonald, Youssef El Mays, Navraj Brar, Eric Liu, Noah Campbell, Jack Bon, Sebastien Psariamos)

The Varsity Cup (winner of the women's eights)

Toronto 8:21.9
(cox: Jack Pankratz, Vanessa Lin, Dahlia Rostom, Maia Stelfox, Fortune David, Sarah Armstrong, Roksolana Nazar, Jane Paterson, Claudia Makhanko-Tang)

McGill 8:39.2
(cox: Varya Kataria, Alice Saito, Astrid Scarth-Lella, Emelie Reid, Eloise Dosserich, Mariam Anwar, Amalia Timmouth, Emily Lindquist, Abigail Powell)

Chancellor Edward Beatty Cup (winner of the reserve men's eights)

Toronto 8:08.0
(cox: Peter Hansen, Thomas Carnell-Derenyi, Kalan Crouch, Charlie Kozar, Sam Bolton, Manit Butalia, Antoine Vilain, Devansh Singhi, Lysander Weekes)

McGill 8:30.1
(cox: Paige McCallum, Harrison Roy, Sinan Bankaci, Adam Czarnecki, Cole Allen, Logan Salpeter, Paul Hollander, Zachary Murphy, Paul Special)
 
Spirit of 1980 Trophy (winner of the reserve women's eights)

Toronto 9:03.1
(cox: Elizabeth Yeoh, Caitlin Terry, Kayla Chow, Olivia Ruffolo, Melanie Stibbard, Mia Penney, Elena Eberhardt, Emily Thompson, Daniella Caldwell)

McGill 9:23.3 
(cox: Varya Kataria, Miriam Anwar, Amelie Evans, Meredith Midgett, Caroline Zimmer, Naomi Fandrich, Kaitlin Puddy, Sophia Waller, Sofia Campos)

Terry & Aileen Stevens Cup (awarded to team with lowest cumulative time from all four races)

Toronto 33:17.2

McGill 34:06.1

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A century-old head-to-head rivalry, the U of T and McGill rowing competition was first held in 1926 between the men's rowing teams, marking the first intercollegiate rowing challenge between two Canadian universities. 'The Challenge' featured a decade of competition, but was then not contested from 1937-2022 due to the onset of the Second World War and subsequent loss of institutional memory of the race. 2023 marked the rebirth of 'The Challenge' with the addition of women's eights and reserve eights for both genders. On odd years, the race is set to be held in Montreal and on even years, Toronto will serve as host. Renewal of the Toronto-McGill clash adds another dimension to a long-standing athletic rivalry that has existed between these two schools since 1881 when the first rugby-football confrontation began

Rowing at the University of Toronto was established in 1897, beginning out of Argonaut Rowing Club. It is the first and oldest university rowing program in Canada. Over the program's 127-year history, it has produced 25 Olympians, multiple national team athletes and many more OUA and Canadian University Rowing Championship medalists.