The Andover Boys first boat retained its undefeated record these past two weeks, beating very strong competition from St. Paul’s and Exeter. Two weeks ago, Andover faced a team it had not defeated in two and half years. In fact, no team had beaten St. Paul’s in the past two and a half years. The Andover first boat took a two-seat lead off the start against St. Paul’s. Knowing it had to fight hard, Andover pushed to extend its lead to a half a length over the next 400 meters. Then St. Paul’s took a power move and took back the two seats that Andover had worked so hard to gain. Andover was not about to squander its best chance to beat St. Paul’s in recent history, and the boys in blue stepped it up to take a 3?4 length lead on St. Paul’s. Over the course of the sprint, Andover continued to push away from an exhausted St. Paul’s boat, winning by open water in the most challenging race of the year. “It was great to finally beat St. Paul’s, but this is still the regular season and they will get faster by Interschols,” said Captain Rush Martin ’07. Geoff Martin ’07 added, “It was good to get the monkey off our backs, but now we have to go have a good week of practice so that we can beat Exeter whom we only beat by half a second earlier this season.” The Andover Boys second boat was also able to beat St. Paul’s, winning by four seconds. Similar to the first boat race, the second boat also had a two-seat advantage off the start. It took a little longer to really start pulling away, but when the boat started to move ahead, St. Paul’s could not keep up. “We were much more relaxed against St. Paul’s then we were against Salisbury a week ago,” Connor May ’07 said. “We had a good start and settled into our piece, finding a rhythm halfway through, putting away St. Paul’s before the sprint.” This was the second straight win for the new second boat line-up, a line-up that finally looks set for the rest of the season. This past weekend featured a rematch of week two of the season. Exeter’s first boat had hopes of avenging a half-second loss to Andover earlier in the year, but Andover, coming off another great week of practice and great win over St. Paul’s, was prepared to defend its undefeated record. Andover again pulled out to an early lead of two seats on Exeter. Again, over the next 400 meters Andover extended its lead to half a length, but did not let Exeter walk back on them like St. Paul’s had. The Andover boys had a chance to send Exeter a message in this race and they did, pushing away in the sprint by five seconds. The second boat could not keep its winning streak alive against Exeter. “We weren’t relaxed against Exeter, we weren’t able to take advantage of their mistakes, and we weren’t prepared for the choppy conditions in the middle 500,” commented Hanson Causby ’08. Andover was ahead with 500 meters down when Exeter caught a half-crab, allowing Andover to extend its lead by three seats. But then Andover caught numerous half-crabs and the boys found themselves down a length to Exeter. With the moment gone, Andover struggled to regain its composure, losing by six seconds. Andover will race NMH this upcoming Saturday in its last race of the season before Interschols.
