Princeton University
NCAA Championship
Princeton Open Crew Routs Field, Wins 2006 National Championship
May 28, 2006 | Women's Rowing - Open
May 28, 2006
WEST WINDSOR, N.J. - Countless teams pointed to Sunday morning's NCAA grand final as the ultimate goal for the 2006 racing season. Within seconds of the start, Princeton turned a championship competition into its own exhibition of greatness. The top-ranked Tigers completed one of the greatest seasons in program history by routing the field by more than six seconds for Princeton's first women's open crew national championship since 1995.
Princeton, the 2005 silver medalist, entered the season as the top-ranked crew in the national polls. The Orange and Black set a program record with 14 wins, including several over Top 20 competition, and then cruised to victory at the Eastern Sprints two weeks earlier. The favorites entering this weekend's NCAA regatta at nearby Mercer Lake, Princeton posted the best times in heats on both Friday and Saturday.
In other words, Princeton had set expectations so high that it would be tough to live up to them. A tight win might not have done it, and a loss would have been very difficult for the senior-laden first varsity boat to live with.
Like the rest of the field, Princeton blew those expectations out of the water. The team of stroke Caroline Lind, #7 Kristin Haraldsdottir, #6 Jackie Zider, #5 Devan Darby, #4 Andreanne Morin, #3 Caroline Kruse, #2 Genevra Stone, bow Kate Bertko and coxswain Lizzie Agnew jumped out immediately and held a six-seat lead within 25 strokes over Brown. By the 500-meter mark, Princeton held an open-water lead over its Ivy League rival. "That's the way we row," head coach Lori Dauphiny said afterwards. "We get out quickly, but we've done that before and lost. We were committed to the body of the race, those 1,000 meters in between."
Those were a critical 1,000 meters last year, when California overtook Princeton for the national title. This year would be different, as Princeton built the lead to a half-length at 1,000 meters, and then to a full length with only 500 meters left. After several terrific careers that were missing only this championship, the Princeton women left nothing to chance over the final strokes of the race. The Tigers built the lead against two crews battling for the overall team title to finish in 6:36.851, more than 6.4 seconds faster than California's second-place time of 06:43.260. The Golden Bears took the team title by rallying past Brown (6:43.521) at the end of the varsity eight.
"I just couldn't be any prouder of this team," Dauphiny said. "It's been a process. These women have competed since they were freshmen. I put this boat right up there with the '95 one, the last championship boat."
"I am enormously proud of Lori and the team," director of athletics Gary Walters, who joined a sizable cast of Princeton administrators, student-athletes, families and friends at a joyous medal ceremony, said afterwards. "It's not easy to live up to their own billing, which is part of what makes today so sensational. It was a flat-out impressive performance."
Princeton had an abundance of experience in its first varsity boat. Two members of the boat, Lind and Bertko, have been in this boat for every NCAA championship since 2003, when both were freshmen. Darby, the boat's lone walk-on and the 2006 captain, and Zider joined those two as sophomores, and Haraldsdottir and Stone joined them last year. The final three members of the boat were Kruse, Morin (who took last season off to train for the Canadian national team) and coxswain Agnew.
Darby noted to one reporter afterwards that she had a note on her wall, one the said NCAA champion, that she saw every morning. Like the rest of her teammates, Darby answered years' worth of work with a dominant championship performance.
The win also moved Princeton into third place in the team competition. The Tigers ended the competition with 56 points, including 36 from their 1V victory. Princeton claimed victory in the petite final in the varsity fours to open the morning. The Tigers moved past Stanford early in the race and got to a four-seat lead around the 800-meter mark. Princeton pulled away from there, getting to open water early in the second half of the race and beating Wisconsin by more than a half-length.
The second varsity had its big effort Saturday, edging its way into the grand final with a tight finish in the repechage. Princeton finished sixth in the grand final, but the extra points gained there helped the Tigers gain third in the national team title race.
Division I First Eights Grand Final (Places 1-6)
Name Final Result Difference Final - Official Results 1. Princeton [ #4] 00:06:36.8510 - 2. California [ #3] 00:06:43.2600 00:00:06.4090 (1.61%) 3. Brown [ #2] 00:06:43.5210 00:00:06.6700 (1.68%) 4. Washington State [ #6] 00:06:48.0670 00:00:11.2160 (2.83%) 5. Ohio State [ #1] 00:06:49.3190 00:00:12.4680 (3.14%) 6. Michigan State [ #5] 00:06:51.2220 00:00:14.3710 (3.62%)
Division I Second Eights Grand Final (Places 1-6)
Name Final Result Difference Final - Official Results 1. Brown [ #4] 00:06:48.7680 - 2. California [ #2] 00:06:54.3760 00:00:05.6080 (1.37%) 3. Wisconson [ #5] 00:06:54.6660 00:00:05.8980 (1.44%) 4. Ohio State [ #3] 00:06:55.9680 00:00:07.2000 (1.76%) 5. Washington State [ #1] 00:06:56.0790 00:00:07.3110 (1.79%) 6. Princeton [ #6] 00:07:00.4750 00:00:11.7070 (2.86%)
Division I Fours Petite Final (Places 7-12)
Name Final Result Difference Petite Final - Official Results 1. Princeton [ #3] 00:07:49.3430 - 2. Wisconsin [ #2] 00:07:53.4180 00:00:04.0750 (0.87%) 3. Stanford [ #4] 00:07:57.0340 00:00:07.6910 (1.64%) 4. Yale [ #6] 00:07:57.6850 00:00:08.3420 (1.78%) 5. Notre Dame [ #5] 00:08:01.9610 00:00:12.6180 (2.69%) 6. Tennessee [ #1] 00:08:03.4330 00:00:14.0900 (3%)