Girls’ Crew Dominates, Sweeps Several Teams
With strength and competition, Exeter Girls’ Crew developed into a strong and determined team as they earned back awards throughout the season, ending the year with an 8-4 record. They started off the season with a sweep against five other teams at the Exeter invitational regatta. Then, the team lost to Kent, but came back with a sweep against Hanover High School. The next week, the entire boathouse swept Andover and Tabor Academy. The final full-boathouse regatta resulted in a mix of wins and losses, but overall, Exeter came out on top against St. Paul’s.
The girls in the boathouse got to know each other especially well this season with constant boat changes and seat races, as well as psychs and team events. Despite competition for seats within the boathouse, the girls have pushed each other to work harder this season creating a highly motivated girls crew team. Two year coxswain and upper Lena Papadakis said, “We have a motto on girl's side that says, ‘any boat, any seat, and day with a smile’ because our lineups move around so often, and while it's hard to accept at times that your spot is rarely secure, that is what drives you to be better.”
“We stepped up our game and arrived at their boathouse with such focus and such a driven mindset that pushed us all to victory.”
One unique thing about this past season was the strength that was firing from the novice boats. Boat 6 motivated boat 5, which pushed boat 4 and so on. The varsity boats especially felt this pressure, which fired them up to retain their spot as a varsity rower. Senior and varsity rower Hailey Hudson said, “When one girl gets stronger, we all do, pushing each other through the hardest of times. The bar was set really high this season and we all proved ourselves and each other with strength and dedication.”
Another difference in this season was the frequency of the 2k erg test. What the rowers call “2k-ing” is a main source of stress and competition in the boathouse. Anxiety always builds the day before the test in anticipation of the physical pain that a 2k erg test causes. With higher frequency this past season—a 2k every Tuesday—it seemed less and less daunting with each week as the rowers noticed improvement over time. Rowers often use 2k times as a representation of strength. Lower and JV rower Emily Coombs said, “This season I’ve improved both my erg scores and my technique thanks to our coaches and hard work inside and out of practices.”
Boat lineups erg during the 2k together, which also helps motivate each boat crew. Hudson remembered one 2k test as one of her favorite memories from the season. She said, “I never thought I would association the phrase “best memory” and “2k” together, but another unforgettable moment of this season was a 2k the varsity completed that resulted in numerous PRs, including myself. Seeing the team become faster and overcome an especially arduous piece of work and achieve so many personal records was so amazing.”
This improvement and strength shown in 2k tests translated onto the water and was evident during regattas. With a three-week head start from previous seasons due to the early ice-melt on the river, EGC rowers felt well prepared going into their first regatta. In contrast to being nervous during her first year of coxing last season, Papadakis felt excited for the first regatta and confident in the abilities of her boat as well as her own. Recalling the first race, she said, “As soon as we pried away from the line, any bits of nervousness disappeared, and I can fully say that there is nothing like the exhilarating feeling of walking through a crew, not to mention five.” The entire girls crew team easily swept against five other crews in the Exeter invitational marking the start of the racing season. For Papadakis, this boosted her confidence and erased all the nervousness and anxiety that she was too familiar with last year. “I do remember throwing my hands through the water once we crossed the finish line first and thinking, ‘this is why I cox. This is what makes all of the frustration, tears and hours of work worth it.’”
This hard work was also evident when Exeter faced Andover, whose girls’ first boat used to be the New England Champions. Knowing that statistic and with the motivation of facing Exeter’s ultimate rival school, EGC left everything on the water and the entire boathouse swept against Andover and Tabor Academy. Hudson said, “We stepped up our game and arrived at their boathouse with such focus and such a driven mindset that pushed us all to victory.”
Though competition can sometimes be fierce, the rowers motivated and supported each other throughout the season. An EGC tradition to psych each other up before a regatta is called ‘manus tria.’ Explaining the concept, Coombs said, “Our team consists of about 60 girls, so before every race we do Manus Tria. Normally a girl from Varsity, JV and Novice are assigned to each other and before every race, you write each of them a nice note and give them a small gift or snack to pump them up.” This brought together the entire girls team, from novice to varsity, and created a supportive environment in the boathouse, despite the inner competition.
Co-captains and seniors Lily Sexton and Amelia Stucke worked hard to bring the team together this season as well. Stucke feels like she had a stronger relationship with the boathouse than she would’ve if she hadn’t been captain. She said, “As captain I’ve had a lot of opportunities to talk to girls on lower boats and so I think I’ve grown closer with a lot of girls that I wouldn’t have necessarily grown close with.” The captains had a big job in being role models for the entire team and all the boats. Stucke said, “The biggest thing that I wanted to do was to bring the entire boathouse as a whole up this season by giving them a captain that every boat can talk to.”
Both captains were overwhelmingly proud to sweep not only all 6 girls boats, but also all 6 boys boats against Andover. The entire boathouse united to win as one metaphorical boat. Stucke said, “That’s really what crew is about: having one big boat and one big boathouse, and being able to pull the team together and having the sweep for all the team and to have everyone happy was definitely one of the best things to watch.”