Eight Exeter boats traveled to Lake Quinsigamond today to race Andover, St. John’s, Simsbury, Brookline, and Northfield Mount Hermon in the season opener in Worcester, MA. The girls crews made a dramatic sweep of the competition: all four boats won by margins twelve seconds or greater. On the boys side, closely contested losses by the second, third, and fourth eights were followed by a strong first place finish by the boys first boat eight seconds ahead of Andover, the defending NEIRA champions. Full results:

G1		G2		G3		G4
Exeter	05:11.5	Exeter	05:28.4	Exeter	05:41.6	Exeter	06:05.0
Andover	05:24.5	Andover	05:40.4	Andover	05:55.0	Andover	06:46.7
Brookline	05:30.4	Brookline	05:48.1	Simsbury	06:06.2
Simsbury	05:36.6	Simsbury	05:52.1	Brookline	06:12.4
NMH	05:48.0	NMH	06:11.1
B1		B2		B3		B4
Exeter	04:30.6	Andover	04:38.7	Andover	04:51.0	St. John’s	05:31.3
Andover	04:38.0	Exeter	04:40.7	St. John’s	04:51.6	Exeter	05:34.9
NMH	04:53.9	St. John’s	04:45.6	Exeter	04:58.4	Andover	05:48.1
Simsbury	04:56.9	Simsbury	04:54.4	Simsbury	05:14.0
Brookline	04:57.5	Brookline	05:12.3
St. John’s	04:59.6	NMH	05:25.5

Conditions this afternoon at Quinsigamond were ideal: sunny skies, temperatures in the mid 70s, with only a slight breeze blowing off of the Shrewsbury (eastern) shore.

Girls co-captain Allison Courtin ’08 said “It’s great that everyone won. We didn’t really know what to expect since this was our first race of the season. We’ve been working really hard and we can see it’s started to pay off.” Looking ahead to the dual meet versus Kent School next weekend, Courtin said “We’re going to keep the same game plan, keep training through these races since each race is a way to see our improvement from week to week.”

Boys co-captain Tim Moore ’08 said “It’s a good start to the season. There’s a lot of new rowers and younger guys in the lower boats, and I’m confident that they’ll get some more speed as the season progresses.” Regarding the first boat’s win, “I’m really pleased with how we did. The boat was very relaxed and comfortable going down the racecourse. We had both the intensity and the form to move ahead of the field.” Looking to next weekend’s races against Kent, who beat Andover by 3.2 seconds two weeks ago, Moore said “We know it’s going to be a tough race–but races are always tough at this level. This week we’ll probably start bringing up the stroke rating a bit to do some more work on starts and sprints.” Moore also remarked that “These races are definitely a good way to see where we are, but of course we aren’t content with any win besides the last race in May.”

Crews will return to Quinsigamond next Saturday for a dual meet versus Kent School.

A full gallery of photos from all the races will be posted this week.

Discuss this story!