Boys Crew B1 pushes hard to surpass their opponents.
Following a week of record-breaking achievements, Boys Crew maintained its strong form this Saturday, beating St. John’s Prep and Boston College (BC) High.
According to Spencer Salhanick ’24, B1 went into the race with a mindset of just testing its limits and competing against itself. Although strong currents presented a challenge that resulted in a slower time compared to last week, Salhanick thought the team still executed well, keeping errors to a minimum.
Salhanick said, “I think we rode pretty well, I think everyone was connected and in sync and getting all the timing done well, catch placement and connecting throughout the entirety of the stroke, but it was interesting because we came into this race knowing that a lot of this race was us against ourselves. We wanted to prove to ourselves that we could pull a really good race throughout completely… I think we were probably better this week.”
Chris Savino ’24 highlighted B1’s record-setting performance from the previous week and mentioned that the crew aimed to surpass that achievement. They focused on maintaining speed, refining technical skills, and finishing strongly.
“So we were coming off of a very successful week against Kent, and Kent is a very competitive crew, so we knew that we had the capacity to keep doing very well. I think this week we mainly just worked on kind of maintaining that speed and also fixing technical things and also improving our sprint at the end, so being able to go faster at the end of the race,” said Savino.
Jonas Giannoni ’25 pointed out that due to Andover Crew’s impressive strength this year, B3 was not only competing against other B3 boats but also aiming to match up with B2 and B1. Giannoni appreciated the ambitious energy from B3.
Giannoni said, “I would say the fact that, in our boat specifically, we really strived to compete with the second and the first boat, so our competitors were not only the people we were rowing against on Saturday, but it was also the second boat, so we were also like, ‘Okay guys, we got this. We need to lock in. Even if we are ahead on any other boats, we need to remember that we are competing, and we are trying to do the best that we can. So if we are ahead, we want to get more ahead, and if we are behind, we are going to get ahead.’ That was a good mentality.”
Furthermore, Giannoni believes that fostering team camaraderie will be crucial in the coming weeks. He thinks that while team members should always be looking to enhance their own strength, they should also ensure that they are bringing their teammates along.
“Getting stronger and withholding that sense of community so that we uplift everybody, making sure that everyone is doing what they need to do to get better, to stay healthy, to get to that spot where you are not working to make yourself better, but to make the team better. Actually, it’s more that you are trying to make yourself better and the team better, not just yourself. So, instead of stepping on everyone else, you are just building everyone up, and so you are trying to make that team spirit really excel. You are not just trying to benefit yourself and get as far as you can amongst the rankings,” said Giannoni.
Looking ahead, Savino is confident that each boat will continue focusing individually and collectively on improving its speed and rhythm to achieve the team’s ultimate objective of winning the NEIRAs.
“The thing about rowing is that everything builds up to New England’s at the end of May, so every crew’s goal is, regardless of your opponent every week, to keep on improving and improving so that you peak at the end of the season when it matters most at New England’s. So, I think our goal this week is to just simply keep getting faster, make sure we were rowing in sync, and make sure we are working together to make the boat faster,” said Savino.
Crew will race Hanover and Bedford at home on Saturday.
