The Deerfield girls’ rowing team traveled to Gill, MA to compete against Northfield Mount Hermon and Nobles and Greenough School. It was a beautiful afternoon on the Connecticut River: warm temperatures, blue skies and a light following breeze on the racecourse made for fast racing conditions. NMH and Nobles both have strong and deep programs and were able to provide racing opportunities for all of the Deerfield rowers and coxswains–a major highlight of the season so far! A huge ‘thank you’ to host school, NMH, for organizing a fantastic afternoon of racing!
The afternoon kicked off with the G4 race. The crew of Charlotte Steffensen ‘25, Alice Zhang ‘24, Alessia Root ‘23, Lily Pierce ‘25, and Mia Senturk ‘24 had a terrific race against strong competition from Nobles and NMH. This crew quickly settled into a powerful rhythm in the middle of the race that proved to be too much for their opposition. They steadily moved on Nobles in the middle 500m of the 1500m race, crossing the line in a time of 6:00.5 and ahead of Nobles (6:14.9) and NMH (6:51.22). They set a great tone for the other boats still to race.
After a productive week of practice, Emi Takegami ‘25, Carson Stultz ‘24, Tatum Lowe ‘25, Fiona Van Nice ‘25, and Jenny Jin ‘24 looked to make progress in their racing. They faced stiff competition in both Nobles and NMH. After a good start, DA found themselves level with Nobles and it remained this way for the first half of the race. A decisive move around the halfway point in the race gave DA an advantage heading into the second half, after which they extended their advantage slightly. They finished in 5:53.4, about 6 seconds ahead of Nobles and 17 seconds ahead of NMH.
The G2 race was next on the schedule. The crew of Ashley LaBrucherie ‘23, Lillian Auth ‘24, Olivia Konar ‘22, Georgia Sackrey ‘23 and Margot McAuliffe ‘24 started aggressively and settled into a strong pace. They had an advantage over NMH in the early going but struggled to maintain their speed in the second half of the race. To NMH’s credit, they rowed strongly in the second half of the race and moved past and away from DA. At the finish, DA was 12 seconds behind NMH and 7 seconds ahead of Nobles. This crew will look to rebound from a difficult performance over the next couple of weeks.
Next up was the G1 race. Deerfield’s crew of co-captain Nicole Xing ‘22, co-captain Lila Nottage ‘22, Natalie Meyer ‘23, Rachel Mark ‘23, and Larrabee Pollack ‘23 raced well against very strong crews from Nobles and NMH. A couple of missed strokes at the very start of the race did not prevent DA from settling into an aggressive race pace. The tailwind on the race course made for fast racing conditions and both NMH and DA soon separated themselves from Nobles. DA battled with NMH through the middle of the course, eventually pushing out to a slight lead. A resilient NMH crew put in a big effort in the closing stages of the race and tried to push back into DA in the final meters of the race but Deerfield was able to hold on, finishing in 5:31.4 and ahead of NMH’s 5:36.6 and Nobles in 5:55.9.
Following this race, the G5 crew of Chloe Xue ‘25, Emily Rice ‘24, Sloan McClure ‘23, Lukenine Suphakarn ‘24, and Elizabeth Richards ‘24 overcame a rocky start to power away from their competition in the middle of the race course. They crossed the line about 20 seconds ahead of Nobles and well ahead of NMH. They looked terrific as they rowed past the spectators on shore. Upon returning from this race, two members of this crew, Elizabeth and Lukenine, quickly turned their attention to the final race of the day.
The G6 race was another great showing for Deerfield. Despite having only a few days of practice together, the crew of Alice Xiao ‘23, Sunny Nie ‘23, Rowan Van Wormer ‘24, Mary Lee ‘23, and Hasini Pundla ‘24 raced well against a stubborn Nobles crew. They demonstrated great form and cohesion as they pushed themselves to a 9 second victory over Nobles.
In the final race of the afternoon, the girls’ novice eight, consisting of Melissa Chun ‘24, Izzy Ramirez ‘25, Kingsley Carolan ‘25, Lukenine Suphakarn ‘24, Elizabeth Richards ‘24, Alexandra Fierro ‘25, Liv Boe ‘25, Lila Church ‘25, and Elizabeth Kelly ‘25 had a strong race against a really skilled Nobles crew. Despite their best efforts, this crew fell short of topping Nobles, though they did come back considerably in the closing stages of the race. They demonstrated great sportsmanship in congratulating Nobles on a well-rowed race. A special thanks to both Elizabeth Richards and Lukenine Suphakarn for racing twice!
The Deerfield girls had a great afternoon of racing at NMH. They continue to make progress and with just two weeks left in their season they are well positioned to do their best racing in the final two weekends. We look forward to racing six boats at Lake Waramaug next weekend against strong competition from Choate, Taft, Frederick Gunn, and Berkshire.
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Full results of the racing can be found here.
For information on the Draper Riverhouse, click here.