Photos from the christening of the christening of the E. Arthur Gilcreast on 5/7/2008. Courtesy of Luke Thoms ’08.

Ten Exeter crews traveled to Hanover, NH yesterday to race Hanover High School on Dartmouth’s home racecourse. The girls 1st-4th eights kept up their streak with their third consecutive sweep, though the 5th and 6th (novice) eights couldn’t keep up with Hanover. The boys 1st-4th eights all jumped out to early leads and cruised to open water wins. Full results:

G1		G2		G3		G4
Exeter	04:24.3	Exeter	04:35.1	Exeter	04:51.2	Exeter	04:56.0
Hanover	04:33.9	Hanover	04:50.4	Hanover	05:25.0	Hanover	05:20.6
G5		G6
Hanover	04:33.0	Hanover	05:23.6
Exeter	04:35.5	Exeter	06:10.6
		Hanover	06:24.1
B1		B2		B3		B4
Exeter	04:06.3	Exeter	04:15.8	Exeter	04:21.0	Exeter	04:32.3
Hanover	04:19.6	Hanover	04:35.6	Hanover	04:35.6	Hanover	05:01.5

Boat alignments on the floating start were not exact due to the Connecticut River’s steady current–these times are therefore not comparable. Temperatures were in the 50s with a slight quartering headwind.

Girls co-captain Allison Courtin ’08 said “It was fantastic to see G1-4 win again. For the first boat, it was a good race to see where we were as a boat against modest competition. Coming out of the race we still have things to work on–our start especially was not as clean as we would have liked, so we’ll be focusing on that in practices.” Courtin commented “It’s a huge testament to the program that G1-4 have raced so well.” Looking ahead to this coming weekend, “We’re really excited about Andover because we know that they’ve improved too and we’re looking forward to seeing how that plays out.”

Boys co-captain Tim Moore ’08 said “It’s great to get another win, though it was more of a test to see how hard we can push ourselves. In the end we could have done better, we definitely had some rocky strokes and need to focus more within the boat.” Moore added “After talking to guys in some of the other boats, it sounded like they felt that it wasn’t their best race either, though it didn’t help that we had to sit for two or three hours in the cold before getting on the water.” Regarding the upcoming races versus Andover this weekend, “We’ve been working a lot on technique and bladework, and we’re excited to see how that plays out against Andover.”

Next weekend, crews will travel to the Merrimack River to race Andover on their home racecourse.

If you have any photos to share of yesterdays races against Hanover, please send me an e-mail.

Update: A few photos appended, courtesy of Jerry Brecher and Towny Manfull.

Race Photos

Eight Exeter crews returned to Lake Quinsigamond today to race Kent School in the annual dual meet. The girls squad made another impressive sweep of the competition–their second in a row. This included a spectacular 18 second win by the girls first boat. Races were tighter for the boys squad: Kent’s junior varsity crews proved too much for Exeter’s fourth and third boats, and Kent’s second eight barely edged out Exeter’s second in the last 250 meters. Despite these earlier losses, the boys first boat overcame a three-seat deficit in the first 500 to beat Kent’s B1 by more than half a length. Full results:

G1		G2		G3/G4
Exeter	05:12.0	Exeter	05:31.0	Exeter (3)	05:32.0
Kent	05:30.0	Kent	05:43.0	Exeter (4)	05:37.8
				Kent (3)	05:38.1
				Kent (4)	05:43.1
B1		B2		B3/B4
Exeter	04:31.0	Kent	04:54.0	Kent (3)	05:07.1
Kent	04:32.7	Exeter	04:55.5	Kent (4)	05:18.9
				Exeter (4)	05:20.6
				Exeter (3)	05:22.7

Weather conditions were excellent: mostly sunny skies, temperatures in the 60s with a slight southeast wind.

Girls co-captain Becca Kisner ’08 said that “It’s really great to sweep again, our confidence from last weekend’s wins definitely carried into today’s racing.” However, the captains and coaches have reminded everyone on the squad that now is not the time to fall into complacency: “Now that all the rowers have seen how much our hard work has paid off, we’ll be raising the bar and pushing people to get faster for upcoming races.” Kisner also remarked she is “very proud of the younger girls for stepping up and racing at a really competitive level.” Video footage of the G1, G2, and G3/G4 races are available on YouTube, courtesy of Chris Hanlon, P ’10.

Boys co-captain Ian Winthrop ’08 said that he’s “happy with all the boys performances, especially the two varsity eights.” Winthrop said “In the first boat race we were a little scrambled and a little inconsistent with our strokes for the first 1000. We didn’t really get a good rhythm until at least 1000 meters in. So this week we’ll be doing a lot of long, steady state pieces to work on our rhythm and improve our bladework.” Winthrop added, “We know we have the power, and Coach [Smith] said that Kent rowed better than us, so once we are able to put all that power in the water we should find even more speed.” Regarding the second boat’s narrow loss, Winthrop said “I’m really proud of them: they rowed with a lot of intensity. I was concerned earlier in the season that they might be too small, but they’ve been barely losing against really fast crews, and I think they can definitely find more speed.”

Next week, crews will head to Hanover, NH to race Hanover High School on Dartmouth’s racecourse. Please e-mail me if you would like to take photos of next week’s races since I won’t be able to attend them.

Update: Streaming video of the G1, G2, and G3/G4 races are available on YouTube, courtesy of Chris Hanlon, P ’10.

Update 2: Full resolution video of all races is now available for direct download here (118MB).

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Race Photos