On Saturday April 29th, Boys Crew trekked out to Salisbury, Connecticut for a day of racing. All five Andover boats went, and all five Andover boats won. The day opened up with the much anticipated first boat race. The absence of Co-Captain Karl Hirt ’06 due to a family emergency left the team missing a rower, but Noah Warren ’07 stepped up to the plate and rowed in both the B1 and B2 races. The first boat crew won by over a boat-length against the typically strong Salisbury crew, one that includes at least one former member of the Junior National Team. B1 coxswain Michelle Darby ’07 said, “We were up off the start and we stayed up after that. Then we made our move and got some open water on them, but their coxswain did a good job keeping them in the race and never let them drop out.” After the three JV boats all won their races, the boys on the second boat rowed up to the starting line hoping to cap off the day with a win. The race was tight throughout and everything came down to the final 250 meters. The Andover crew dug deeper and found the strength to finish the race five or six seats up. This past Saturday, all five Andover boats raced St. Pauls, a school with a notoriously strong crew program, whose first boat has been undefeated for two years. In the opening B2 race, Andover raced against three other crews; St. Paul’s, CRI, a club team, and the first boat from Manchester Central. The first boat from Manchester Central raced in the second boat race, under the correct assumption they could not keep up with the other first boats. However, Andover still finished first out of the second boat crews, crossing the line almost a boat length ahead of third place St. Paul’s and fourth place CRI. Six-seat Ian Accomando ’08 said, “We knew St. Pauls was going to be tough. They put a really good second boat on the water last year so we worked hard all week to prepare. We were down early but we moved well in our power pieces, and we had an awesome finish.” The final race of the day was the much-anticipated match-up between PA and SPS. The first boat includes six members of last year’s crew, all of whom bitterly remember the second place finish to St. Paul’s at NEIRAs last May. Andover kept up with St. Paul’s at the start, and only lost a few seats in the first 500. However, St. Paul’s pulled away in the last 1000 meters of the race and ended up beating Andover by a little bit of open water. Though all of the rowers were disappointed, it may finally light the fire within this year’s crew that has struggled to fulfill its incredibly high expectations. Next weekend is the annual Andover-Exeter-Tabor race. Neither crews have raced Tabor; however at the Andover-Exeter Invitational earlier this spring, B1 took first place out of six boats, including Exeter, while B2 could not keep up with the Big Red’s second boat. Both Phillips crews are confident that they can win the rivalry match-up and collect some steam heading into late May’s interscholastic championships in Worcester. Looking at the final few weeks and the upcoming race with Exeter, Co-Captain and proud Texan Hirt said, “It hasn’t been the pony ride we expected this season, but as long as we go into these final races saddled up with our boots strapped, we’ll be ready to set our guns a-blazing and come out on top.”
