Max Garcia ‘24 and the Coco/Begrowicz Advisory were able to pull out a close-call victory against Aidan Helms ‘24 and the Elliot Advisory in the annual Senior Boat Race on Sept. 18. With the win, they also earned one Field Day point for the entirety of the Klinkhardt Quadrant.

Every year since Country Day School and Mary Institute merged, an annual boat race has been held. According to Nicole Trueman-Shaw, Upper School Dean of the Class of 2024, “they were trying to come up with traditions and things that would combine the two schools in a more effective way…so they came up with the Senior boat race.”

However, the boat race didn’t always have plastic or styrofoam materials, and the seniors were expected to make it across the lake with only cardboard, resulting in most of the boats sinking. Trueman-Shaw also mentioned that it has only been in the last few years that the boat race has been combined with homecoming.

When building a good boat, Trueman-Shaw suggests that “design does matter, but then also the craftsmanship matters”. In past years, she found “people are like, ‘this design is amazing, it’s awesome’, but they don’t take a lot of time putting it together. They’re not careful where the plastic goes, they’re more interested in what it looks like, rather than its functionality.” According to her, raft boats and canoes are not recommended, as well as any additives or accessories to the boat will cause it to sink.

Trueman-Shaw’s final warning about the pond: “You’re going to be standing in 3 feet of mud,” she says, so she advises the rowers—and any Seniors who choose to partake in the post-race tradition of jumping in the pond—to wear old shoes.

Before the race, the Class of 2024 seemed generally optimistic about their boats as well their advisory teamwork. Zoe Zlatic ‘24 “[has] faith in the Rappleye advisory” and said, “it was such a fun process and it was really cool to see my advisor (who is an English teacher) get into the engineering and math behind it. It was also fun because there’s multiple people in my advisor[y] (including myself) who are in the engineering elective right now, so we applied some of the skills we learned to our boat.”

Ella Brauer ‘24 said, “I’m definitely pretty nervous because at field hockey practice last year after all the seniors had gone in the pond they were so stinky and gross. I’m also really excited to see how it goes and it’s one of those things you really don’t know how it’s going to play out until the boat gets in the water.”

The Class of 2024 kicked off the year with the annual boat race and will get the opportunity to partake in many more senior traditions over the next 8 months.