McMaster had strong representation in many large boats for the Western Invitational this year, including both light and heavy weight women's coxed fours and for the first time, Mac fielded both light and heavy weight men's eights in the races. All boats were racing against some of the top crews who will be battling for national championships this season.

The course is a unique 4000m stretch with a sharp 90-degree turn nearing the last 1000m of the race. The event also includes a 500m dash where crews sprint out the short distance. The times are weighted from each event to determine overall success in the day. 

It was a fiercely windy day as the singles started the racing. In the men's heavy single, Liam Bakker raced his first varsity race for McMaster finishing in a time of 19:52.1 after a challenging middle section. He came out stronger in his next race, posting a time of 2:25.6 in the dash.

D'arcy Arends, now starting her fourth season with the Marauders, had promising results this weekend. Arends finished the long first race in 18:08.5, over thirty seconds ahead of multiple boats in her field. She held strong with the leader boat from Brock and only lost the dash by one second with a time of 2:21.7.

Next the heavy weight women's doubles took to the water and came out with a time of 18:55.7. Just in time for the dash, the headwinds reared up, making the event a very challenging sprint. Boats waiting to race were drifting over lanes in the wind at the start. In these hard conditions, the double pulled through the course in 2:52.1.

In the women's fours McMaster had two boats. The 4km course was long, with strong headwinds around the turn and the experienced crew from Western were technically sound as they passed the McMaster boats to win the race. The lightweights finished in 17:10.1 and the heavy weights finished in a time of 17:56.2.

The last McMaster boats to race were the men's eights. They were facing two of the top teams from the province, Western and Brock. The lightweights pushed through to finish in a time of 14:26.6 on the longer course and 1:47.5 in the dash. The heavy men raced the 4km in a time of 13:38.6 falling behind the leading boats in the big turn. They came back on the water hours later to beat the Western heavy weights in the dash with a time of 1:35.4 and ended up just 3 seconds off of Brock's time.