Girls Crew Suffers a Tough Loss To Kent

This past Saturday, girls’ varsity crew competed against Kent and St. Paul’s in a double header at Turkey Pond, Concord, New Hampshire. Boat 1 finished last, while Boat 3 came in first place and Boats 2 and 4 finishedsecond.

Senior Nora Epler commended Kent for its all-around strength and St. Paul’s first boat for its incredible speed. “St. Paul’s dominated the G1 race,” she said. “This was a really tough regatta.” Senior Alex Rothstein shared similar sentiments. “The races had a very wide range of results as both teams were really good,” she said. “Kent has always been a very big competition of ours, but St. Paul’s was extremely fast this year, so they were intense competition.”

Rothstein believes that with more practice, Exeter will have a chance to beat other teams at future races. “I think that we will work on finding where everybody works best in the boat,” she said. On an individual level, Rothstein hopes to stroke harder and find strength in her legs.

Epler also wants to improve on every aspect of her strokes. “Personally, I need to add speed rather than weigh the boat down,” Epler explained. She hopes that the team will work cohesively to push themselves forward, and work on its endurance. “We are working on getting in better shape so that we can sustain our initial speed throughout the race,” Epler said.

Senior Zoe Marshall felt that she could’ve gotten further if she’d pushed her oar further into the water. “I need to work on burying my blade,” Marshall said, elaborating on what she wished to improve in the future. “Too often I find my oar half out of the water and I miss the power I could have had otherwise.” Marshall hopes to push her team to success by helping them get more “raw power” and speed on the water.

With a focus on future regattas, girls’ varsity crew will look forward to a rematch against its opponents. Big Red will face St. Paul’s once more later on in the season, and all three teams will compete at  NEIRAs.