Last week, the Boys Varsity Crew team voted Rush Martin ’07 Captain for its upcoming season. Martin, a four-year Senior and three-year first boat veteran, has always showed strong leadership qualities and is one of the hardest workers on the team. Although Martin is honored to be elected Captain, there are bigger things on his mind. For Martin, the most important achievement will be how the first boat and the program as a whole perform this year, especially against rival Kent. During his first year on the first boat in 2005, Martin and his temmates defeated Kent to win back the Dent Oars, a coveted set of oar blades that the Andover and Kent first boats traditionally compete for on the first race of the season. Andover performed very well over the course of the season, losing only to St. Paul’s and NMH. It placed second at Interschols, the first of back-to-back silvers for Martin. Last year’s first boat entered the season looking to retain the Dent Oars and, in the long run, win Interschols, thus securing an invitation to the Henley Royal Regatta in England. Beating Kent would have been impressive in its own right, as the Kent first boat was stacked with five PG’s. However, the Andover boys held their own and were poised to win the race with a final sprint when Scotty Morgan ’06 jumped his slide, dramatically slowing the boat. Andover would rebound over the course of the year, only losing to St. Paul’s. As Interschols approached and St. Paul’s was forced to scratch from the line-up, the door seemed open for an Andover-Kent rematch. Again, the two boats raced neck and neck down the course. Andover pulled ahead during the first half of the sprint, but Kent was able to squeak past Andover and win by eighteen hundredths of a second. Despite this loss, Andover journeyed to England to compete in the Henley regatta. It lost in the semi-finals but advanced much farther than a seriously weakened Kent team, whose PG’s were ineligible for competition. Martin has used these goals to push him all winter and thus far into the spring. The back-to-back losses to Kent have left Martin “bitter, very bitter. Though we haven’t raced yet, we’ve made good progress and look forward to taking on Kent and winning back the Dent Oars. Ultimately we want to win the New England Championships, both as first boat and as a team.” Martin is not looking past this season, but he is looking forward to his future rowing career at UC Berkeley. Cal is arguably the best program in the country. In fact, its Varsity won last year’s IRA National Championship.
