Boys Row to Success

It’s hard to mark the start of crew season. Springtime, when the boats finally hit the water? March break, when the varsity team trains together for the first time down in Boston? The end of winter term, when erg machines awake from their winter slumbers to break out their first 2K of the new year? To choose one of those would ignore fall crew, the time when experienced rowers get out on the water together without the pressure of racing against other schools. It would also ignore the great deal of work put in by these athletes over the summer and winter breaks in order to prepare for the physical strain of rowing.

For boys’ varsity crew, the season came to a sharp halt at NEIRAs, crew’s championship race, which is designed to summarize the level of work put in by a program throughout a season into a matter of a few minutes. In such a quick, isolated competition, though, anything can happen. In the end, mere seconds decide winners and losers, and this year, despite several strong races earlier on in the season, the seconds did not side with Exeter.

“It was a great season with awesome people,” senior Lakin Vitton said. “Despite the end result, it was great to come to practice every day. Everyone was excited and ready to go.”

After taking home first place from the NEIRAs last season, B1 faced strong pressure to succeed again this season. Getting out on the water in April, the team started off in the perfect direction, taking the first in the first three races against teams that included Andover, St. John’s, Simsbury, Kent and Hanover. While the boys suffered a hiccup against Andover in PA’s home race, they came back out strong the next week to take down St. Paul’s.

“We had a really great race against St. Paul's School,” senior co-captain Sam Helms said. “The boat felt really fast and smooth.”

Optimistically heading into the NEIRAs at Lake Quinsigamond, the team ran into lousy weather and fortune, missing the qualifying time for the grand final by a second and a half.

“It was a disappointing end of the season for the 1st boat, but third and second really stepped up to the plate, winning gold and bronze, respectively,” Helms said. “Watch for some great crews in the future.”

For B2, this year’s NEIRAs was about regaining its medal status, which they had been knocked out of the running for last year.

“The second boat came out with the goal for vengeance,” senior Michael Eaton said. “We started the season a little timid, as we only had one returning varsity rower, but after our first race, we quickly built confidence and our goal became being on the podium at New England’s.”

Eaton cited physical endurance as the boat’s primary weapon, supporting the investment of hard work these athletes put in.

“Our endurance was absolutely our strength,” he said. “Almost every race we won this year came down to the last 600 meters of the race. We were simply stronger at the end of our pieces, and were able to maintain our composure despite our position in the race. No matter where we were, we knew we could sprint in the last 500 to pass our opponents.”

One such race for Exeter was against Andover, in which the team used its strength to come from behind. 

“It was by far our most difficult win, but at the same time it was the most rewarding,” Eaton said. “It was a race where everybody stayed cool, calm and collected.”

Though maintaining a team mentality undoubtedly plays a significant role in the sport, Big Red had its share of personal achievements, as well.

“Lower Jake DellaPasqua really stepped up this season, pulling the third fastest erg time on the team after a winter of hard training and qualifying for the junior national team high performance camp this summer,” Helms said. “Upper Benj Cohen was a standout as always, pulling the fastest ergs on the team and qualifying for the U.S. junior national team selection camp this summer. Watch for him to compete at the junior world championships this summer.”

Eaton felt that the promising lowerclassmen who improved significant since last season were valuable assets to the team. 

“The lowers on our boat definitely stepped up to the plate this year. Jake DellaPasqua and Nick Madamidola, both of whom were on JV last year, came back stronger than ever after a long winter in the erg room. They were huge contributors to the power in our boat,” he said. “We had three lowers move all the way up from novice to varsity: Rex Bone, Mark Schieber and David Shepley. All three of them very visibly matured and adjusted to their new positions to become essential members of the second boat.”

This season was also the first with English instructor Tyler Caldwell serving as head coach. Caldwell, a former lightweight at Harvard, initially joined the Exeter crew program last year as an assistant, and took over as head coach for Albert Leger this season, giving the rowers an excellent role model from which to learn.

“It was a pleasure to work with Coach Caldwell and Coach Moore, both helped all of us tremendously,” Vitton said. “I don't know what we would have done without them.”

All in all, B1 and B2 will be graduating Helms, JB Baker, Vitton, Bruno Jacob, Julian Drury, Eaton and coxswain Nikhil Chuchra. Though there will certainly be holes to address, strong finishes at NEIRAs for B2 and B3 promised a strong future.

“This has been a great season for the program,” Eaton said. “While NEIRAs did not go as well as we had hoped or expected, we had a solid season. We've proven that despite losing six seniors, we have a great base of rowers to choose from in the coming years."