After an extremely grueling week of practice, Andover Boys Crew beat rival Exeter in a highly-anticipated race this past Saturday. Coach Washburn kept the practices intense to make up for the lack of water time—a strategy that clearly paid off. Andover was able to get in a quick row Friday before loading up the boats and heading out to Worcester. The first boat boys had been eagerly awaiting this race all week and all season. Andover jumped out to an early lead of half a length. After a substantial move, Andover extended its lead to a little over a boat length. Poised to continue to walk away from Exeter and the rest of the field, Andover was hindered by a crab. “We caught a crab at 600 meters in, but all eight rowers fought to make up the loss,” said Chip Schroeder ’07. Despite very rough conditions, Andover was able to recover and hold off a late Exeter charge to win by 0.5 seconds. “We are obviously excited about beating Exeter, but we’re all looking forward to getting out on the water this week, getting some good strokes in, and getting even better so that we can row a strong, clean race against Salisbury,” said Captain Rush Martin ’07. A very exciting fourth boat race opened the day’s competition. Coming into the last third of the race, Andover came from behind to sprint past Exeter and win by a second and a half. B4 also destroyed St. John’s by 13 seconds. In the third boat race, Andover could not pull forward from its initial lagging position behind either Exeter or St. John’s, both of whom are always strong. Andover lost by eight seconds to St. John’s and four to Exeter. In the second boat race, the Andover boys earned their first win of the season, beating Exeter by two seconds. “We were fortunate to be ahead off the start and were strong the whole way through the race,” said coxswain Stacey Middlebrook ’07. The second boat victory came with a new line-up, as Conor May ’09, who was unable to attend the Kent race, joined the boat.
