Boys Crew Sports Spring Sports

Boys Crew: B1 Triumphs over Exeter on Home Course

On Saturday, Andover Boys Crew Co-Captains Ben Hawley ’15 and Marc Sevastopoulo ’15 proudly held the Andover/Exeter Trophy over their heads in front of family and friends at the William H. Brown Boathouse.

Phillips Exeter Academy, Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH) and Tabor all journeyed to Andover’s race course on the beautiful Saturday afternoon, and Andover emerged victorious in a close meet.

B1 started the day off with an intense, one-second win over Exeter in 4:47 and a four-second win over NMH. The boat had the same lineup as last week of coxswain Jacob Kozol ’15, stroke Rob Irvin ’15, Sevastopoulo, Hawley, Dylan Norris ’16, Jack Lane ’15, Nick Faulkner ’16 and Gabe Blanchard ’16.

B2’s lineup consisted of coxswain Christina Schoeller ’16, Diego Blandon ’15 and Aidan Driscoll ’17 in the stern pair. Behind them were Tora Liu ’16, Will Humphrey ’16, Alex Cao ’16, Carter Page ’15, Tyler Lian ’16 and Miles Neumann ’15 in the bow.

B2 got off to a strong start but struggled halfway through the race and allowed Exeter to take the lead. Andover failed to recover after relinquishing the lead and ultimately came in second place by three seconds with a time of 5:01. Tabor came in third place in 5:02, and NMH came in fourth in 5:16.

“B2 struggled with the middle 500 meters of the race. Though it was upsetting to lose to Exeter, Saturday’s loss highlighted areas of our race we need to work on. We’ll face off against Exeter and many other schools again at the New England Interscholastic Rowing Association (NEIRA) Championships in two weeks. We’ll be sure to get them then,” said Page.

Andover’s B3 finished in 5:00 to claim first place by about one boat length of water. Exeter followed in second place in 5:05, then Tabor in 5:20 and NMH in 5:22.

B3 rower Paul Kinard ’15 said, “We didn’t know how fast Exeter or Tabor were, so there was a lot of nervous energy in the boat. When we got on the water, we saw Exeter’s B3 was rowing an Empacher, which is the same brand of rowing shell that is used in the Olympics. At the start of the race, the boats were staggered. Tabor was four seats ahead of us, and Exeter was four seats ahead of them. After the first 20 strokes we were even with Tabor, and then, by 500 meters into the race, we were even with Exeter. We moved incredibly fast those first 500 meters.”

Kinard added, “After that we walked about two seat lengths on them every hundred meters. We left Tabor in our wake. Exeter tried to make up the distance they were losing but to no avail. After each move, they would become increasingly tired and fall further behind. We finally crossed the finish line with open water on Exeter and the others far enough behind that I forget the distance.”

Andover will focus on its identified areas for improvement as it competes against Hingham and Shrewsbury on Saturday in its final race before NEIRAs.

Editor’s Note: Tyler Lian ’16 is a Commentary Editor for The Phillipian.