Gliding past the finish line half a second before Exeter, Andover’s B2 narrowly defeated their archrivals while also cruising to victory over St. John’s in the rain last Saturday. B1 decisively beat St. John’s by half a boat length and crushed Exeter by a whopping 10.1 seconds. With these wins, both Andover boats maintain their perfect undefeated record in the official season. B2 got off to a bad start in the race, as the starter used a flag to signal the beginning of the race instead of the usual “Attention…Go!” and the rowers failed to adjust. By the time the team started and synchronized their strokes, Exeter had already taken three-quarters of a boat length on Andover. Andover pulled even with Exeter about half way through the race. Despite spending extra effort to catch up to Exeter, the crew managed to take a couple seats, and maintained that lead until the final sprint. In the last 250 meters, Exeter fought hard to close the gap, but Andover held them off and pulled to victory with a 5:20.9. “This weekend was a wake-up call telling us that we have to keep giving 100% during practice if we want to be the fastest crew come Interschols,” said Chris Calkins ’11. In the other boat, the B1 crew finished in an impressive 4:53.2. With open water on both of their competitors, Andover has improved greatly since last year when B1 lost to Exeter at the beginning of the season and then defeated their rivals by a mere 0.2 seconds at NEIRAs. Though excited about the win over their opponents, the B1 rowers hope to improve their time with better weather. “We put together a pretty solid race considering the conditions, and it really seems like we’ve been progressing more and more with each practice. What felt like a sloppy row this weekend might have been some of our best work a couple of weeks ago,” said Cal Brooks ’11. Looking forward, Captain Dan Larson ’11 said, “We won the race, but realize we will need a lot more speed to be the fastest boat in New England.” Brooks summarized the race, saying, “I would say that this race shows us that we have a lot to work on and a lot of potential to get faster, but also shows us that we have a very promising season ahead of us if we can put in the work.” On Saturday, Andover will travel to their next race against Salisbury and Brunswick.
