Girls Crew spent the weekend racing Tabor Academy (Tabor) and Phillips Exeter Academy (Exeter), following with an appearance at the Lower Boat Regatta on Wednesday. Through several tightly-contested races this week, Girls Crew secured the overall victory against its rivals, and took home the David Smith Trophy for combined boys and girls points on Saturday.
On Saturday against Tabor and Exeter, coxswain Yumi Lai ’27 led boat one as they raced against Exeter. Lai reflected on the thoughtful preparation and steadfast determination of her rowers as they pushed their limits.
“We knew that Exeter was going to set up their sprint really early, so we prepared for that in advance and trained for the sprint during the week leading up to this race. During the race, we did sprint early. We sprinted with 500 meters left, while normally we’d do that with around 250 left. It definitely took a lot of energy, but I was really proud of my rowers. You could tell every stroke that they put their everything and that extra 10 percent into every stroke, and you could tell that they wanted it really bad,” said Lai.
Lai continued, “For the sprint, we actually held onto them. We held onto two seats over them the whole way down, and we even gained another seat, but about 15 strokes till the line, we caught a crab, which slowed down the boat. But our boat was really resilient, and we picked it right up from that moment.”
Elizabeth Shin ’29 further elaborated on the close races against Exeter and Tabor.
“Racing against Exeter and Tabor was our closest race this season. Each race was won or lost by only seconds apart. During my race, I could see the Exeter boat to the very left of us, and they were about one to two seats ahead of us. My boat worked so hard and pushed as hard as we could in order for us to take back the lead. We ended up winning by a bit over 1 second,” said Shin.
Sarah Sun ’29 reflected on how facing Andover’s longtime rival heightened the energy and intensity of the races.
“Because it’s Exeter, there was a lot of cheering when the boats came past. Also, the coxswains were talking a lot more, because when it’s Exeter, you always want to win. When we were at the last 100 meters, Taylor [Shu ’28], our coxswain, was screaming her head off, and it was a very lively atmosphere,” said Sun.
Lai expressed pride in the team’s strong performance and looked forward to the upcoming NEIRAs.
“We think that all of our training that led up to this moment really worked out, and we look forward to seeing them again at NEIRAs next week, which is our New England interscholastic race, and racing them harder,” said Lai.
Girls Crew will compete in a second Lower Boat Regatta this Saturday.
