Princeton University Athletics
Solid Race Gives Princeton Gold Medal In California
April 03, 2000 | Women's Rowing - Lightweight
April 2, 2000
SAN DIEGO, CALIF. - The defending national champion lightweight women's crew took first place in the lightweight grand final of the San Diego Crew Classic, winning the A.W. Coggeshall Cup. In its first racing action this spring, Princeton paced the field with a time of 7:13.9, defeating a talented group of established and up-and-coming lightweight crews including rivals Wisconsin, Radcliffe, and Villanova.
Princeton and Wisconsin, who had clearly proven themselves as the two fastest crews in the preliminary race, pulled away from the competition off the start in the grand final. When the Badgers settled into base cadence for the race, they began to move ahead of Princeton, and took a six-seat lead. That margin held until 500 meters to go, when Wisconsin caught a devastating crab that cost them over ten seconds. Princeton cruised past Wisconsin as the Badgers veered out of their lane. Wisconsin recovered, but it was too little too late. Princeton's sprint sealed the victory, and sent the Tigers home from San Diego with gold medals.
"The 15 second margin is misleading," said stroke Linda Loyd (So., Oak Ridge, Tenn.). "We had a solid race, but Wisco is fast...their seven-seat caught a crab, and it killed them. They came back and finished in second, but were too far back to catch us. We race them again on Sunday, and it will be a good challenge to beat them."
In the preliminary, Wisconsin used a fast start to take an eight-seat lead, a margin which lasted the entire race as the Badgers defeated Princeton by two seconds.
A.W. Coggeshall Cup Women's Collegiate Lightweight Grand Final
Princeton 7:13.9 Wisconsin 7:28.7 Radcliffe 7:29.6 Villanova 7:30.6 UC Davis 7:49.2 Humboldt 7:57.7 Cal 8:07.4
A.W. Coggeshall Cup Collegiate Women's Lightweight Eight Preliminary
Wisconsin 7:19.2 Princeton 7:21.45 Radcliffe 7:39.30