Princeton University Athletics
Winter Brings Five Ivy Titles
August 01, 2000 | General
Call him the Re-Peter. And you can call her the Re-Julia, though it doesn't quite have the same ring to it.
In a Princeton winter season that featured more than its share of winning, no two athletes won bigger than Peter Yik and Julia Beaver. Each won a second straight national individual squash championship, and each did so in a manner that helped seal their place among the all-time greats in their sport.
In Yik's case, it was through sheer domination, as the diminutive senior ripped through the field without dropping a game in the individual tournament. Yik defeated Trinity's Marcus Cowie, himself a two-time national champion, in the final, rallying from a 10-1 first-game deficit to win 15-14, 15-1, 15-4. Not to be outdone, Beaver added a little more drama to her second championship, going five games in both the semifinal and final and surviving a match ball along the way.
Yik did more than just win a national championship. His win at the No. 1 match against Harvard in mid-February snapped a 4-4 tie and gave Princeton its first outright Ivy League championship since 1982.
The men's squash team, which featured four freshmen in the top six in the lineup, was one of five Princeton teams to win an Ivy League championship in the winter.
The 13 members of the women's swimming Class of 2000 will graduate with a 17-meet winning streak, including a 9-0 mark this season. The 1999-2000 season could go down as the most special in the program's storied history, as the Tigers posted a perfect 7-0 record against Ivy opponents and won league meets by an average of 71 points.
The Tigers had many reasons to smile this season. Coach Susan Teeter recorded her 100th career win with a 138-95 beating of Columbia. The 13 members of the senior class made up the largest graduating class in the program's history. Together they helped the Tigers to rise into the Top 25 of the national poll for the first time ever.
At the Ivy League championships the Tigers won five individual titles and a relay title to walk away with the team title.
The women's fencing team posted a perfect 5-0 record in the league to win its Ivy championship, the program's second in as many years and first outright. The Tigers also set a University record with 15 victories on the season, topping last year's mark of 12 wins. Princeton followed the Ivy championship with a three-weapon title at the Intercollegiate Fencing Association (IFA) championships.
In the final match of the season, Princeton traveled to Yale, who gave the Tigers their only blemish on their 1998-99 Ivy record. Yale had either won or shared the Ivy crown for each of the last four years, but Princeton clinched the outright title with a 16-11 win.
Eva Petschnigg became the first Princeton women's fencer to win an individual title at the NCAA championships when she won the foil crown at Stanford. Petschnigg, a freshman, won 18 of 23 five-touch, round-robin matches to qualify as the third seed in a direct elimination final four bracket. She then defeated the No. 2 and No. 1 seeds to win the championship. Princeton's men's and women's teams combined to finish fifth overall.
For the men's fencing team, a 4-0 Ivy record gave the Tigers their 11th league crown and fourth in the last five years. Princeton finished the season with a 12-3 record and combined with the women's team to win the six-weapon title at IFAs.
Princeton doubled up Columbia 18-9 in the league opener behind a 9-0 performance from the sabre squad. That win set up a showdown with defending Ivy champion Penn, who edged the Tigers 15-14 to win the 1998-99 title. Captain Jason Burrell went 3-0 as the Orange and Black defeated the Quakers 17-10 in Jadwin Gym. Princeton completed the Ivy sweep with wins over Harvard (16-11) and Yale (17-10) in New Haven.
The men's track team won the indoor Heps championship--again. The Tigers won the indoor title for the sixth time in seven years, and Princeton has not lost a Heptagonal event in either track or cross country in three years.
Princeton won six individual titles, led by Paul Morrison's double in the mile and the 3,000 meters. Jonathan Jessup won the pole vault, while all three Tiger captains won their events as John Mack took the 400, Mike Spence won the 5,000 and Scott Denbo won the shot put.
The men's basketball team played in the postseason for an unprecedented fifth straight season. Despite their youth and a rash of injuries, the Tigers went 19-11 and earned an NIT bid.
by Jerry Price