Exeter begins 2013 season at Quinsigamond
Eight Exeter crews travelled to Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, MA yesterday to compete against Andover, St. John’s, NMH, Simsbury, Shrewsbury, Boston Latin, and Brookline in their season opener. Strong westerly winds gusted above 25 miles per hour, while temperatures hovered around 50 degrees during the mid-afternoon races. Exeter boats placed in all events, and finished first in three.
| G1 | G2 | G3 | |||||
| Exeter | 4:52.4 | Exeter | 5:29.4 | Andover | 4:49.5 | ||
| Brookline | 5:05.8 | Andover | 5:42.5 | Exeter | 4:57.2 | ||
| Simsbury | 5:08.4 | NMH | 5:53.7 | Exeter G4 | 5:00.1 | ||
| Andover | 5:10.0 | Boston Latin | 5:58.4 | Andover G4 | 5:11.9 | ||
| NMH | 5:12.7 | Simsbury | 6:01.1 | Simsbury | 5:18.1 | ||
| Shrewsbury | 5:32.9 | Brookline | 6:04.4 | NMH | 5:43.8 | ||
| Boston Latin | 5:59.2 | Shrewsbury | 6:22.2 | Shrewsbury | 6:05.6 | ||
| B1 | B2 | B3 | B4 | ||||
| Exeter | 4:26.6 | Andover | 4:11.5 | Andover | 4:37.8 | Andover | 4:36.7 |
| Brookline | 4:32.2 | St. John’s | 4:12.7 | Exeter | 4:50.1 | Andover B5 | 4:38.3 |
| Andover | 4:32.5 | Exeter | 4:13.0 | St. John’s | 4:52.3 | Exeter | 4:41.7 |
| St. John’s | 4:38.8 | Brookline | 4:21.7 | Simsbury | 5:00.9 | St. John’s | 4:45.4 |
| NMH | 4:47.0 | Simsbury | 4:26.6 | Brookline | 5:18.7 | St. John’s B5 | 5:25.0 |
| Simsbury | 4:52.7 | NMH | 4:36.9 | Shrewsbury | 5:40.6 | ||
| Shrewsbury | 4:55.0 | Shrewsbury | 4:41.4 |
Girls co-captain Catherine Denton ’13 said the crosswind during the race presented a challenge with “large swells” at times. Denton added, “we have had several very windy practices on the Squamscott, so our crews were well prepared and worked together to keep the boat steady.” G1 pulled ahead throughout the race, finishing in first with a 13-second margin. Looking ahead to next weekend, Denton said, “SPS and Kent next weekend are likely to be our biggest competition this season, so we will be working hard in practice to become comfortable moving together.”
Boys co-captain Andrew Rondeau ’13 also noted the crosswind, which led to “many misaligned boats during the first 250 meters.” Fortunately, B1 was able to power through and break away from the pack at the end of the first 500 meters. B2 had a difficult start that was held for an extended period time. Although B2 finished in third place, it was only 2.5 seconds behind first-place Andover. Rondeau says the scrimmages that B1 and B2 had in the past few weeks were “really good practice in racing against other boats.” Next weekend’s races against St. Paul’s and Kent will be “serious competition” for B1 and B2.
Please enjoy the photos below taken from the race. If you have photos you want to share, sign up for a free Flickr account and add the photos to the Exeter Crew photo pool according to the instructions. The tag for this race is “2013invitational“.