Andover Boys Crew raced St. John’s Prep and Duxbury on Saturday. For the first time this season, each one of the team’s four boats won its respective races.
According to Maxamillian Dabbous ’24, a rower on the Boys’ Varsity Two boat (B2), the team’s hard work during practices was evident during the race.
“The thing we were working on all week was building up our endurance so we could have a fast base pace. We held a fast base pace like we predicted, and it all came together at the end when we sprinted,” said Dabbous.
Andres Aleman ’23, who also rowed on B2, explained how his boat still maintained a great lead despite a minor setback. The boat finished about three lengths ahead of Duxbury.
“B2 had a great race. We were in lane one so we had the longer stagger. We started further back so off the blocks. We had a pretty good start, but we were still behind. One of our rowers, Mac Doucette [’23], his feet boards came out completely during the race, so it was basically like we were rowing with seven guys in the boat. But we were still able to pull the head through the halfway mark and by the end of the race we had just kept building,” said Aleman.
According to Sia Gandhi ’24, the coxswain of B2, the persistence of the boys in the boat allowed them to win the race. Gandhi highlighted the boat’s strong start, which led to the win.
“I think B2 is a special boat because all of the guys are self-motivated to work together and strive to push their limits to achieve success. This was exemplified during our race, as even with breakage, the guys pushed through and used our setback as drive to push harder, consequently leading us to win with open water,” said Gandhi.
Dabbous stated that B2 is known for its energy, but it still needs to work on increasing its pace. In this way, the boat can excel in the middle part of the race.
“The second boat is known as the hype boat on the team, so it’s the most fun boat to be in. Everybody has a good time, and we need to work to just keep getting our base pace faster, so the base pace is like the middle bit of the race, and if we can keep a very strong middle bit and have good endurance we could be unstoppable,” said Dabbous.
Andover Boys Crew will race Hanover High School and Bedford this upcoming Saturday.
