Girls’ Crew Meets High Expectations from 2013

Exeter crew glided past the competition during Invitationals last Saturday. The first and second boats won their races by 3 and 8 seconds, respectively. With a great ending to the their first regatta against Andover, Brookline, Simsbury, NMH and Shrewsbury, girls' crew is off to a great start. 

"It's a good start to the season,” senior Jess Michaels, first boat coxswain, said. “All the girls' boats did really well with either wins or really tight races."

The crew girls have a lot to live up to this season; last year’s first and second boats won New England’s championships. Although the third boat did not win, they finished with a fast and impressive time, proving Exeter's dominance in girls' crew in the 2013 season. All of the girls hope to relive the success of last season. The girls will be competing against most of the schools they raced this Saturday once more at New England’s championships, and Big Red will only get stronger and faster as the season goes by.

 "The season looks strong. We definitely have the power to win, we just need to keep working on rowing together," Michaels said, attesting to the promise of the rest of the upcoming season. "Every boat will only get faster now as the rowers and coxswains come together."

First boat this season is very young, with only four seniors, two uppers and two lowers: Lily Sexton and Amelia Stucke. Last year the boat was mostly comprised seniors, a few uppers and one lower. Despite the youth and varied experiences of the rowers, as a whole, the girls are very strong and ready for a competitive, tough and long season. Everything in consideration, the first boat girls brought in the win and crossed the finish line 3 seconds before Andover.

Exeter crew has only been on the water for a short period of time because the Squamscott River had still been frozen weeks into spring term. This has had an impact on the girls' practice time as they have not been able to work together as a whole unit for very long, unlike their competitors. Andover has been on the water for weeks, so the Exeter girls were worried this might impact the race, but they pulled through and proved themselves to be the better boat.  

The weather conditions were not agreeable for the athletes rowing on cold water. As senior Genevieve Medina said, "It was a great day of racing for both sides (boys and girls), especially considering the challenging river current and wind conditions and the fact that our teams have had considerably less time to practice on the water due to the frozen Squamscott."

Saturday's regatta was a successful first race for first and second boat, but girls’ crew hopes to learn from the tight endings at the finish line during their past race for this Saturday’s game against Kent and St. Paul's. "Even for those who won, I am confident that we will keep the close victories against Andover in mind as we train hard this week to compete against Kent and St. Paul's," Medina said.