Andover Girls Crew G2 finished with a 10 second lead over Andover’s G1 in a surprising turn of events against Essex Rowing Club last Saturday. Essex jumped out to a large lead early on, virtually knocking Andover’s G1 and G2 out of contention within the first 500 meters and ultimately finishing boat lengths ahead of Andover.
Essex finished the 1500 meter race with a time of 5:50.4, while G2 finished in 6:11.1. The G1 boat pulled through the finish line with a time of 6:21.3.
G1 rower Willa Tellekson-Flash ’14 said, “Our line-ups aren’t set yet, and there are a lot of girls who are new to the team this year who have a lot of power. Finding the right combination of girls will be really important. Once the boats swing together, they will be much stronger and faster. This is just the beginning of the season, and we still have a lot work to do, but we also have a lot of potential.”
She continued, “We need to do a lot of work on our set, as well as our rhythm at our start. Also, as the season goes on, we just need more work on coming together as a boat and really powering through the whole race.”
The startling finish of the G2 boat before the G1 forces Andover to consider rearranging line-ups in order to place the strongest rowers together.
Andover may experiment with seat racing to help determine the fastest combination for its first boat.
Despite the poor performance by G1, G2 was a highlight in the race and surpassed its expectations.
G2 rower Efua Peterson ’14 said, “I think G2 did a really good job coming together and getting our rhythm as a boat. While we did not win the race, I am very happy with how we did, especially with the rough winds we experienced at the end of the race. It was the first real race of the season, and even the first ever race for some of us, and our performance made me very excited to see how the rest of the season will go.”
Saturday featured unusually rough conditions on the Merrimack River, with a slight tail current, strong headwind and choppy water beset with large waves. At the start of the race, the winds were blowing at five mph and by the finish were gusting at more than 15 mph.
Qiqi Ren ’15 said, “I think we just need to work on technique and dealing with rough water. We just have to work hard in practice to get where we want to be.”
This Saturday, Andover will host Kent in its second race of the season.
Hopefully, the team lineups will have found the ideal line-up so that Andover can emerge victorious.
