Ivy Champion Tigers Bring Biggest Of NCAA Dreams Into Shortest Of Trips — Nearby Mercer Lake

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP LINKS: Championship Central l Seeds
PRINCETON LINKS: Princeton wins Ivy League Title l Lori Dauphiny Earns Coach of the Year l Princeton NCAA History l NCAA Notes Packet
PRINCETON VIDEOS: Ivy Recap & NCAA Preview l Tigers Talk About Lori Dauphiny

The trip is short, but the destination couldn't be grander.

The reigning Ivy League champion Princeton open rowing team will make the short trip to Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J., to compete this weekend in the 2017 NCAA Championships. Unlike the Ivy Championships, the NCAA title is awarded to the best overall team finish (1V, 2V, V4), and each of those Princeton boats will be seeded in the Top 10 of their respective fields. The Ivy champion 1V, which hasn't lost a race in 2017, will enter as the fourth seed and is seeking its third individual NCAA championship in the event.

The regatta will begin Friday with morning heats and afternoon repechages, and will continue with semifinals on Saturday and finals on Sunday. The full schedule, as well as links to results, maps, and videos, can be seen in the Championship Central link atop the page.

You can also follow live updates throughout the weekend via Twitter (@TigerWCrew l @PUTigers) and Instagram (PrincetonAthletics).

Below are previews for all three Princeton boats, and there is a video preview that you can access at the top of this page.

First Varsity
NCAA Seed: 4th
Record: 11-0, 7-0 Ivy
Ivy Finish: Gold
2016 NCAA Finish: 6th
Friday Heat: 9:36 am (Princeton, Ohio State, Virginia, Notre Dame, Navy, Massachusetts)
Saturday A/B Semifinals: 8:36/8:48 am
Sunday Grand/Petite Finals: 11:00/10:48 am
Projected Lineup: Amanda Rutherford (Cox), Emily Kallfelz (Stroke), Hadley Irwin, Claire Collins, Georgie Howe, Ellie Sawyer, Isabella Nappa, Dagmara Lapins, Emerson Solms

Seconds before the Ivy League championship final, every member of the Princeton first varsity boat was prepared for a 2000-meter thriller.

They got one, but just not in the form they expected.

Both Yale and Brown were Top-10 opponents who the Tigers edged out during the regular season, and there was no reason to think those three boats wouldn't be together with 1000, 500, maybe even 100 meters to go.

As it turns out, they weren't even together with 1900 meters to go.

"I was definitely surprised," said sophomore Claire Collins, who has been part of Princeton's last two Ivy League champion 1V crews. "We were visualizing before it and we were expecting Brown and Yale to be really close to us. We thought about it going down to the wire and needing to sprint it out to the end, so it was surprising to jump out, have a great start and keep the lead to the end."

They crossed the Cooper River line faster than any collegiate women's eight ever had before, and they bring the momentum from that effort — and the second straight Ivy title they earned from it — into this weekend's NCAA Championships. Even more than that, though, they bring a crew that has both a single-minded focus and significant experience.

"We get along really well," said senior co-captain Georgie Howe, a member of the Princeton 1V in each of the last NCAA Championships. "We all have really clear goals for this boat, and we try every session with those goals in mind. We try to go as fast as possible to attain them. There is no beating around the bush with what this boat is trying to do, which is awesome."

"Nationals has been our goal since the outset," Howe added. "We want to come away with a national title. That is our absolute goal."

Princeton has produced two NCAA champion 1V boats (2006, 2011), and a total of 15 that have made the grand final. The Tigers reached the final last year, but left unsatisfied with a sixth-place finish on Championship Sunday. Six members of that boat are back in the 1V, and they are ready to show that they belong with the NCAA's best crews.

"We're really excited," Collins said. "It's fun to be in the Ivy League. There is great competition, and you see that Yale and Brown are among the top boats in the country as well, but we have looked at the West Coast, and even Michigan and Ohio State in the middle of the country, but we don't get to race them until the end of the season. It's exciting, a little nerve-wracking, but exciting to represent Princeton, represent the Ivy League, and lay it down."

The Tigers didn't catch a break with their opening heat, as they'll need a top-two finish to avoid an afternoon repechage. The two boats next to them, Ohio State and Virginia, finished in the Top 3 at NCAAs last year and have combined to win four of the last five NCAA Championships.

Should Princeton advance straight from that heat — at the expense of one of the sport's national powers — confidence could be sky high for what is always a thrilling Semifinal Saturday.

Second Varsity
NCAA Seed: 6th
Record: 10-1, 6-1 Ivy
Ivy Finish: Silver
2016 NCAA Finish: 6th
Friday Heat: 10:12 am (Brown, Princeton, Virginia, Notre Dame, Navy, Jacksonville)
Saturday A/B Semifinals: 9:24/9:36 am
Sunday Grand/Petite Finals: 10:36/10:24 am
Projected Lineup: Kate Elfers (Cox), Catherine Babiec (Stroke), Rachel Reed, Lauren Barnard, Sadie McGirr, Hannah Paynter, Erica Swartwout, Melissa Curtis, Diana Kenealy

From 2004-2011, Princeton put only two 2V boats in the NCAA final, and the school produced only one top-five finish. In the last five NCAA Championships, Princeton has made four 2V finals, and it finished as high as second in the 2014 regatta.

The current 2V is seeded sixth, so it's right on the line between the projected A and B finals on Sunday, but it can also build on its Ivy Championships performance.

"The final at Ivy champs was incredibly fun to race; it is always really exciting when you have such close racing," sophomore Lauren Barnard said. "We were pleased that we rowed well, stayed calm and had a good fight. We have been training hard and finding more speed in the last week and we are really excited to race Brown again in the heat at NCAAs."

Brown took the gold by less than three seconds, but Princeton flipped its Eisenberg Cup result against Yale by about six seconds and claimed a silver medal. In fact, ever since that race on the Housatonic, the Tiger 2V seems to have shifted into a higher gear, and it could be one of the most interesting boats to watch during the regatta.

The crew is led by senior co-captain Catherine Babiec, and like the 1V, it should bring strong chemistry and experience to NCAAs. Nearly every member of the boat has competed at NCAAs, and five members (Babiec, Reed, Barnard, Swartwout, Curtis) were in the 2V last year.

"Most of us have a good idea of what to expect going into this weekend," Barnard said. "We are very excited to be back at the national championship and to see how we stack up against the rest of the schools we haven't gotten a chance to race yet this year."

As Barnard mentioned, Brown will be one of the boats in Princeton's opening heat, but Virginia will be in there as well, so the 10:12 opening heat will be a major challenge — and opportunity — for the Tigers.

Varsity Four
NCAA Seed: 10th
Record: 10-1, 6-1 Ivy
Ivy Finish: Bronze
2016 NCAA Finish: 8th
Friday Heat: 11:00 am (California, Brown, Princeton, Syracuse, Central Florida)
Saturday A/B Semifinals: 10:12/10:24 am
Sunday Grand/Petite Finals: 10:00/10:12 am
Projected Lineup: Emily Erdos (Cox), Kanoe Shizuru (Stroke), Molly Milligan, Ciara Nutter, Anna Kalfaian

Historically, the four has had the toughest time reaching Sunday's NCAA final for Princeton. In the first 20 NCAA Championships, the Tigers have made only five V4 grand finals, and they have never medaled.

Few will expect this Princeton boat to break that trend, especially based on its 10^th seed. But it's an interesting boat that could be dangerous in its 11 am heat on Friday to a pair of higher-seeded crews.

Princeton went 10-1 during the regular season, with its lone loss coming in a tight race to Yale on the Housatonic. Their Ivy final didn't end with the medal they hoped, but if you look at the final times, they were right there with Yale and Brown, both of which are seeded in the Top 7 at this event. Yale is the fifth seed, and the Bulldogs average margin of victory over Princeton in two races this season is 2.8 seconds.

"Looking back at the Ivy Championship, the V4 had a pretty strong showing in the heats, and perhaps not our best performance in the finals," said senior Kanoe Shizuru, who will make her NCAA Championships debut in her final collegiate weekend. "I think the emphasis we all have going into NCAAs is to turn that around and to have an upward trajectory over the course of the weekend. The best thing we can do is to take what we learn from each race and improve upon it moving from heats to semis to finals."

Tight racing is nothing new for the four. Three of the boat's last four races have been decided by less than four seconds, including a tight showdown with 15^th-seeded Syracuse and 16^th-seeded Iowa during the regular season finale. With the potential for some crazy heats Friday, that kind of experience is invaluable.

"This boat has been through it all," sophomore coxswain Emily Erdos said. "We've been tested as individuals and as a whole boat in many different race scenarios, and I think that our experience together gives me confidence about our abilities to race hard this weekend."

"Brown is in our heat at NCAAs, and we've seen them three times now — they're awesome competitors," she added. "This week we've really been focusing on developing our internal rhythm and speed, and we definitely plan to bring that to Mercer."

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