With the interscholastic spring season nearing its end, Choate teams are working to perfect strategies and lineups in order to succeed in season ending competitions or potentially in the Founders League or New England Championships. Girls’ and Boys’ Varsity Crew are no different as rigorous training and on the water racing have determined the best possible lineups for the teams. In particular, the first boat on both teams highlights talented rowers who have bonded with each other to finish strong at upcoming championship regattas.
Both Girls’ and Boys’ Varsity Crew teams enjoy tremendous depth this year, with each team’s seven boats consistently being strong contenders.
Max O’Connor ’21, who, with Brendan Sullivan ’20, Devin Seli ’20, Fenn Suter ’20, and coxswain Shade Mazer ’19, is a member of the boys’ first boat, described how boats were determined. “Boats are initially set based on the rowers’ erg scores and performance on the water.”
Occasionally, one rower will be swapped out with another from a different boat, and the two boats “seat race” in order to see which combination of rowers performs best. “As the season progresses,” O’Connor said, “some seat racing may occur between boats in order to find the best boat combinations that will produce the fastest boats.”
After comparing erg times and undergoing seat racing, the Boys’ Varsity Crew first boat was formed, and the rowers enjoyed the opportunity race as a group in early season regattas. At those races, the boat learned what it needed to practice in order to be successful at the end of the season. “As a boat, one thing we need to improve upon is making sure that we are all together on the same stroke rate, so our oars are all entering the water on time and moving the boat together in unison,” Sullivan said.
Girls’ Varsity Crew followed a similar process in order to determine boats. This year’s first boat is comprised of Sasha Bocek ’19, Lizzie Quinn ’20, Bella Deluca ’19, Allison Opuszynski ’20, and coxswain Grace Lawrie ’19. However, this year’s team is especially strong and has the depth to change lineups even in the final weeks of the season.
The supportive dynamic within the first boats, and the crew team as a whole, is crucial for the teams to have success at the end of the season. “I think everyone has a great mentality in terms of workouts and race day,” said Lawrie. “Crew naturally has a reputation of being almost cult-like, and this is somewhat true. I feel we are extremely close-knit, almost like a second family.”
This camaraderie is clearly demonstrated in Girls’ Varsity Crew’s first boat in their pre-race tradition. “Before a major race or before the last piece of practice, Sasha, who’s in the stroke seat, passes a fist bump through the boat,” Quinn said. “I’m in the three-seat behind Sasha, and I first-bump Bella behind me in the two-seat, and she passes it back to Alli in the bow seat, and it ends with Grace in the coxswain cranny. I don’t know where this tradition began, but it never fails to hype me up.”
In the coming few weeks, both teams have their goals set high as they prepare for the New England Interscholastic Rowing Association Championships (NEIRAs) in late May. “The dream every year is to do well and win points trophy at NEIRAs, as well as the point trophy at the Lower Boats Regatta, which we did in the past few years,” Lawrie said. “We have a deep team this year, so it is extremely exciting.”
O’Connor agreed. “My biggest goal for the end of the season,” he said, “is to make the boat I’m in go as fast as it possibly can and do as best as possible at NEIRAs, the regatta that determines which boats will advance to nationals.”
