Princeton University Athletics
Spring Fever
April 25, 2003 | General
April 25, 2003
Princeton has four Ivy League titles in the bank to date in the 2002-03 academic year. By the end of this weekend's events, that number could still be at four - or double. Or do anything in between.
Four Princeton teams will be able to win Ivy titles this weekend, while a fifth and sixth can move into position to do so.
The softball team can clinch a second straight league title at home this weekend. The Tigers are currently 8-1 in the league, with a two-game edge in the loss column against both Cornell and Brown. Princeton also had an 8-5 lead over Brown in extra innings when darkness came, forcing that game to suspended at that point. Should that game impact the league standings at season's end, it would be resumed from that point.
Of course, Princeton would like to avoid having to drive to Providence to finish that game, and Maureen Barron's team has complete control of that right now. Princeton hosts Dartmouth (2-6 in the league) and Harvard (4-4) this weekend, while Cornell hosts Yale and Brown and Brown is at Columbia and Cornell. Harvard, Yale (also 4-4) and even Dartmouth (2-6) are mathematically alive, but it would take a lot for any of those teams to win the title.
Should Princeton win all four of its games this weekend, it would clinch an outright championship and the league's automatic bid. Should Princeton go 3-1, it would also clinch UNLESS Brown sweeps Columbia AND Cornell sweeps Yale AND either Cornell or Brown sweeps when they play each other. If all that happens, then Princeton would still clinch at least a tie. Princeton could even clinch the championship by going 2-2 this weekend, as long as Cornell and Brown go 2-2 and Harvard and Yale lose at least once.
The Ivy League men's and women's golf championships will be held this weekend as well.
For the first time, the Ivy League women's championship will be held at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus. For the league championship, the front nine will consist of the "West Nine" and the back nine will consist of the "East Nine." Rounds one and two are scheduled for Saturday, while the final 18 will take place on Sunday morning. Competitors will tee off from 8:30 - 9:50 a.m. on Saturday morning for round one, with round two following from approximately 1:00 - 2:20 p.m. The final round will start at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday.
Princeton's Avery Kiser is the defending individual champion after winning last year's title by 10 strokes. Yale is the defending champion, but this is truly a wide-open race.
The men's championship returns to Metedeconk National Golf Club in Jackson for the fourth straight year. For the men's championship, competitors will play 27 holes on Saturday and 27 holes on Sunday. The first tee-off is scheduled for 8:00 a.m. on Saturday for the first round and a half, and 8:00 a.m. on Sunday for the final round and a half.
Princeton is the four-time defending champion and the favorite again.
The men's lacrosse team hosts resurgent Dartmouth Saturday in a huge Ivy game. The Tigers are 4-0 in the league, ahead of 4-1 Cornell and 3-1 Dartmouth. Every other team has been mathematically eliminated. Princeton (home vs. Brown) and Dartmouth (home vs. Harvard) still have league games next weekend, while Cornell finishes its league season this weekend at Brown.
Should Princeton defeat Dartmouth, it would clinch at least a tie its ninth straight Ivy title and 11th in the last 12 years. Should Dartmouth defeat Princeton, both would then have one league loss with one game to play. Cornell could then make it a three-way tie with a win against Brown, forcing Dartmouth and Princeton to win next weekend to make it a two- or three-way tie.
Should there be a tie, then the teams would be co- or tri-champions. In the case of a two-way tie, then the winner of the head-to-head game would get the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Princeton has already defeated Cornell, while Cornell has defeated Dartmouth. The league's last three-way tie came in 1969. Should there be one at 5-1 this season, then the automatic bid would be determined by a random drawing by the league's executive director, Jeff Orleans. Should there be a three-way tie at 4-2 (Dartmouth defeats Princeton, Brown defeats Princeton/Cornell, Harvard defeats Dartmouth), then Dartmouth would get the automatic bid by virtue of what would be a better record against the next team in the standings, which would then be Brown.
On the other hand, a Princeton win over Dartmouth would eliminate the Big Green and would give Princeton the automatic bid. Princeton would then need either a win over Brown or a Cornell loss to Brown to win the outright title, but it would still have the automatic bid.
As on the men's side, there are three women's lacrosse teams still mathematically alive. Dartmouth is 6-0 and hosting Princeton in the final league game for the Big Green. Princeton (4-1 with games remaining against Dartmouth and Brown) and Yale (5-1 with a game tomorrow against Cornell) can still get a piece of the championship.
Should Dartmouth defeat Princeton, then the Big Green would win the women's championship outright and get the automatic NCAA bid. Should Princeton defeat Dartmouth, then it would also need a win over Brown to get a piece of the championship. It could be a three-way championship if Princeton and Dartmouth are 6-1 and Yale defeats Cornell to join them. If there's a two-way tie, the automatic bid would go to the team that won the head-to-head matchup (Dartmouth has already defeated Yale). If there is a three-way tie, then the automatic bid would come down to a random drawing.
Depending on who gets the automatic bid, as many as four women's teams from the league could still get into the NCAA tournament. On the men's side, Princeton looks to be in good shape even without the automatic bid, while Cornell and Dartmouth would be on the bubble for an at-large bid.
And then there's the baseball race. Princeton cannot win an Ivy title without getting into the Ivy League championship series first. Princeton currently leads the Gehrig Division at 10-2, followed by Penn at 10-6 and Cornell at 6-6. Columbia, at 7-9, has been mathematically eliminated.
Princeton hosts Columbia for four games this weekend, while Penn is at Cornell for four games this weekend. Princeton then has four games with Cornell the following weekend. Princeton's magic number for clinching the division is five, meaning the Tigers need any combination of Princeton wins and Penn and Cornell losses totaling five to win the division and advance to the championship series. Since Penn and Cornell play each other four times this weekend, at least one of them will have to lose.
The Gehrig Division winner will host the Ivy championship series by virtue of its better overall division record against the Rolfe Division in inter-divisional games. Two games separate all four teams in the Rolfe, and no team is over .500.
The Ivy League men's tennis championship will be decided Friday afternoon when Brown and Harvard meet. Harvard has already won the Ivy League women's tennis championship.
Ivy League titles in men's and women's track at the Heptagonal championships at Yale next weekend.
The three Ivy League rowing championships will be decided in mid-May at the Eastern Sprints.