Boys' Crew Beats Hanover, Remains #1 in New England

Boats one and two of boys’ crew defeated Hanover High School on Saturday to maintain their number one New England ranking. Big Red’s performance was dominant: boat one won by fourteen seconds, boat two won by twenty-one, and both JV boats won by at least six seconds.The conditions at Hanover were not as difficult as those at the St. John’s regatta the previous Saturday, when boat one overcame a side wind that pushed all the boats off course to defeat six league competitors in the team’s first victory of the season. “Generally it’s a fast course at Hanover, but there wasn’t much current speeding us up. There was a slight wind against us, but we managed to overcome that,” senior co-captain Mark Serbent said.Hanover managed to stick with Exeter’s first boat through the first 500 meters, thanks to the boys’ slow start. But after the first 500, Exeter settled down, picked up the pace and pulled ahead. “Our start was weak during the race this weekend, but our middle and final 500 meters were very fast,” lower Benj Cohen said. “Once we gained composure, our boat really flew.”Boat one finished the race strong, gaining throughout and especially in the final five hundred meter sprint at the end. Hanover could not keep up with the boys’ conditioning and weight efficiency. “Our conditioning is pretty solid, but as always, we will continue to work to improve it,” upper Jb Baker said. “What has really set us apart thus far this season has been our weight efficiency: a lot of the people on our boat have great strength but are also fairly light. This helps us keep pulling when other teams might slow down.”Boat two dominated from the start, leading by so much near the end that despite a slow final sprint, Exeter won by twenty-one seconds. “At the halfway mark, we were so far ahead that we didn’t really push ourselves after that,” senior Nick Storozynski said. “It was definitely one of our best races.”The team now has its sights set on NEIRA’s, the championship for the New England crew teams, but also recognizes that the week ahead is an important one for the team. On Saturday, crew faces Tabor and Andover, both of which are very fast teams. Boat one beat Big Blue earlier in the season, but the boys know that Andover still presents a serious challenge in their second meeting. “We are continuing to gain speed, which is good going into this week because this is our big week before championships,” Serbent said. “Andover and Tabor are two very fast crews, and it’s going to be important to bring our best.”Boat two looks to avenge an early season loss to their arch rivals by rowing as they did against Hanover. “I think if we pull like that against Andover we can definitely beat them,” Storozynski said.“This upcoming weekend is an important point in our season. We have been working tirelessly all season preparing for these races and the championships,” Cohen said. “The bottom line is, we really want to win.”