Boys’ and Girls’ Crew Sweep Andover In Historic All-Team Victory

Boys’ crew swept against Andover and Tabor last Saturday at Andover, winning the Swift Cup. The first boat beat Tabor by four seconds and Andover by five with a time of 4:38, while the second boat beat Andover by just under four seconds and Tabor by four and a half seconds with a time of 4:43.

The first boat began strong and carried on their momentum throughout the 1625 meter race. They gained on Andover and Tabor throughout the competition until they won with open water.

As the lower boats had great success earlier in the day, the varsity boys were excited and ready to prove themselves going into the race. “We were all inspired by the absolute domination of Exeter in the first few races … by the time we were ready to get into the boats we were incredibly restless and ready to prove that we too could be untouchable,” upper Alec Howe said

“Being able to represent Exeter as one of the four captains in the boathouse is truly an honor, especially when our results are so impressive.”

Senior and team captain Jake Della Pasqua said that the boat managed to gain an early lead in the race. “We got up on the start and never really looked back,” he said.

Howe detailed the events of the first section of the race. “We were able to quickly get off of the line, and by about 250 meters in, we had half a length on both Tabor and Andover. To be honest, I think that it was one of the fastest starts that we had had in that boat. About 600m down the line, we were holding our half length lead,” he said.

As Exeter had been given the outside lane and would have a longer turn than the other boats in the middle section of the course, coxswain Will Rau called a power 20 to hold off the other boats. Of the middle move Howe said, “It hurt a heck of a lot, but it worked, and by the time we came out of the turn, we had a comfortable lead over the rest of the boats.”

The first boat then began sprinting at the 500 meters to go mark, getting ahead of the other boats by open water at the 300 meters to go mark, finishing strong at a stroke rating of 44 strokes per minute.

Howe said that the finish was so swift and tiring that he was unable to think about the pain he was undergoing. “[44 strokes per minute] is such a fast rate that your entire focus goes into catching quickly and you don’t have time to focus on the burning sensation in your legs, back and arms,” he said.

The second boat also had a strong start, speeding through and gaining an open water lead. Andover managed to catch them in the sprint however, reducing the margin between them. Members of the team were very excited across the board about the strong finishes of every boat.

Della Pasqua said that Exeter’s success this past weekend was particularly noteworthy. “The regatta itself felt magical. Everything just really clicked for all of the boats, and it felt super special. As coach Leger told me after the race, we need to appreciate what we did because something like this doesn’t happen frequently,” he said.

Prep Will Kalikman also expressed a sense of joy across the board on the part of the Exeter team. “The overall feel of the regatta was one of elation—all of the Exeter kids were very pleased with how the race went,” he said.

Upper Bennett Levy noted the strength of the team as a whole. “Our team is rowing fast—all boats have stepped up the intensity and the speed,” he said.

This upcoming Saturday, boy’s crew will be racing away at St. Paul’s and will be competing at NEIRAs the following weekend.

After Big Red swept all 12 boats at Andover this past weekend, girls’ varsity crew improved its record to an impressive 6-2. The girls’ first boat won a tight race by 1.4 seconds while G2 won by a large margin of 10.2 seconds.

Senior and co-captain Lily Sexton said of the victories, “It was a really great feeling to have swept Andover this weekend. Last year, their G1 had won NEIRAs, so we knew from the start they’d be tough to beat.” The team has been keeping track of Andover’s results all season, and seeing that they had relatively similar results, they knew that a tough race would be ahead of them.

Sexton explained, “Going into the race, we were nervous; we knew they were a strong crew and that they would be tough to beat.”

Upper Annie Yanofsky, who rowed with G4, felt similarly. “I was definitely nervous going into the race because my boat was the last race of the day and we knew if we didn’t win, we would let the whole team down,” Yanofsky said. Yanofsky believed that there was added pressure for Stanley, the fourth boat, as it hadn’t lost all season.

Over the past week, the varsity boats honed in on perfecting each aspect of their racing. The team worked on changing their start for added speed, a flutter was added to the middle of the piece and the team redefined their spring for better swing and picked up momentum.

“Throughout this season, we have been working on rowing together. Individually, we have a lot of strong girls in the boathouse this year, but a crew isn’t fast unless they are fast together,” Sexton said.

Upper Grace Duisburg said that she had trouble pulling properly in the warm up from anxiety in such a high stakes match. However, as soon as the boats took off, “it was just like any other day at practice racing against G4,” she said. The team has been preparing hard for this race, since the majority of boats lost against Kent two weeks ago, in which only one of the four boats came out with the victory.

“We prepared by just working every day, physically and mentally pushing ourselves to the limit,” Duisburg said. However, when it came down to the day before the regatta, Yanofsky said there wasn’t much else to do but sleep and eat plenty of food. There was a laid-back practice and then the rowers took a break before the regatta.

The morning of the regatta was a half-day of classes for the girls. Coxswain and lower Sofia Yoon, who was racing for the first time ever, said that the anticipation of the regatta distracted her in class. “We had Saturday classes that day, and to be honest I wasn’t able to focus as well during classes. I was especially nervous because we were going against Andover,” Yoon said.

Sexton expressed how incredible it was to earn such an award during her time here. “Being able to represent Exeter as one of the four captains in the boathouse is truly an honor, especially when our results are so impressive,” Sexton said.