Princeton University Athletics
Open Crew Looks To Defend 2006 Eastern, Ivy Title This Sunday
May 11, 2007 | Women's Rowing - Open
The single-most competitive day in collegiate rowing will take place Sunday, as all four Princeton crews will head to either Worcester, Mass., or Camden, N.J., for the 2007 Eastern Sprints championships. All four teams will be competing for Eastern crowns, including a pair of squads hoping to defend their 2006 titles, while three teams will be vying for the final three Ivy League championships of the 2006-07 season. Full previews for all four teams can be found in this story.
WOMEN'S OPEN
The 2006 Ivy League, Eastern and NCAA champion Princeton open crew will also head to Cooper River, but it will go without the same pressures from the last three seasons. Princeton has been the clear favorite at Sprints every year since 2004, and it has claimed two golds and one silver during that time period. The heavy losses suffered by the Class of 2006 graduation has forced the program into a rebuilding mode.
Princeton will enter each of its three competitions as the third seed, including the first varsity competition. The varsity eight semifinals will begin at 8:30 a.m., and Princeton will compete in the 8:50 third semifinal. Lane assignments will be: (1) Cornell, (2) Syracuse, (3) Princeton, (4) Dartmouth, (5) Boston U. and (6) George Washington.
Princeton has already faced two opponents from its semifinal heat, and it came away with victories from both. The Tigers edged Dartmouth at home by two seconds and defeated Cornell by more than 22 seconds in a mid-April showdown. The Tigers will need to be one of the top two finishers to advance to the 4:50 p.m. final, and will race in either lane 2 (with a semifinal win) or lane 5 (with a second-place semifinal finish). If the seeding holds, Princeton will likely see Ivy rivals Yale, Brown, Dartmouth and Radcliffe in the final, as well as sixth-seeded Northeastern.
Princeton has shown an ability to compete with the best, as seen in the Eisenberg Cup showdown in Connecticut on April 14. The Yale Bulldogs, who enter the weekend as the top seed in the field, defeated Princeton by less than two seconds on their home course.
The Tigers will also compete in the second varsity eight (9:30 semifinal heat/4:15 grand final) and the varsity four (10:20/3:40). They will be the third seed in both events and, like the first varsity, will need a top-two finish in their semifinal heats to qualify for the grand final.
WOMEN'S LIGHTWEIGHT
The only program that doesn't compete for an official Ivy League title is also the strongest contender for an Eastern championship. The No. 2 Princeton Tigers enter the weekend with a 7-0 record, including head-to-head wins against M.I.T., Georgetown and Radcliffe, three of the five squads competing in Sunday's grand final on Cooper River in Camden. The only team Princeton hasn't matched up with yet is Wisconsin, who is also undefeated and owns seven of the eight first-place votes in the last lightweight national poll (Princeton earned one first-place vote).
The expected showdown between the Badgers and the Tigers will pit the two most successful schools in the EAWRC championships over the last decade. Since 1998, Princeton has won five of nine titles, while Wisconsin has won three. The Badgers have claimed the title in each of the last two years, but head coach Paul Rassam is sending the strongest crew of his three-year tenure to Cooper River.
The grand final is scheduled to take place at 3:10, with these lane assignments: (lane 1) MIT, (2) Georgetown, (3) Wisconsin, (4) Princeton and (5) Radcliffe.
There will also be a novice eight and second varsity eight championship in women's lightweight crew, marking the first year that the sport has crowned three Eastern champions. It shows the growth in the sport, which has also been evident over the last two years with the successful growth of programs like Stanford and Central Florida. Princeton has finalists in both races; the 1:15 novice final will have Princeton racing in lane 4, while the 1:30 second varsity final will send Princeton to lane 3. Each race will also feature Wisconsin, Georgetown and Radcliffe, while M.I.T. will also send a crew in the novice final.
MEN'S HEAVYWEIGHT
Both Princeton men's teams will head to Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester for the EARC championships, including the defending champion men's heavyweights. The Tiger first varsity will enter Sunday as the fourth seed, behind Harvard, Yale and Brown, and ahead of Wisconsin, Syracuse and Cornell. Although the racing schedule has not been released, the Tigers know they will need a top-three finish in their semifinal heat. Along with Harvard and Wisconsin, Princeton will see Navy, Northeastern and Boston University in its semifinal.
While Princeton doesn not bring the same dominant squad that unseated Harvard for the 2006 title, the Orange and Black knows it certainly can compete with the top crews in the East. Top-seeded Harvard defeated Princeton by 1.5 seconds this season, while second-seeded Yale won by only 2.3 seconds.
The
Tigers will also send a second varsity and freshman eight into the
weekend. The second varsity will be under the most semifinal pressure,
as it comes in as the ninth seed and will need to overcome two of the
four crews ranked ahead of it (Brown, Cornell, Penn and Navy). The
novice eight enters as the fifth seed and will need to hold off the
likes of Wisconsin and Yale to find a spot in the grand final.
Top-seeded Harvard and fourth-seeded Cornell are also in its semifinal
race, but with three spots open for the grand final, the Tigers simply
need to hold their seed.
MEN'S LIGHTWEIGHT
Maybe the most up-in-the-air championship of the weekend will be raced by the men's lightweights, who make a habit of beating each other up throughout the season. The unpredictability of the men's lightweight postseason was shown by Princeton last season. After failing to qualify for the Eastern Sprint grand final last spring, the Tigers bounced back for a bronze-medal finish in the IRA national championships.
That makes the morning semifinals as tense as any early races, because the talent gap between first and fourth is fairly slim. The Tigers, seeded fifth, will compete with Harvard, Georgetown, Columbia, Penn and MIT for one of three spots in the grand final. Princeton lost by fewer than four seconds to Harvard in the regular season finale, split a pair of races against Georgetown and defeated both Penn and Columbia during the regular season. Both meetings with the Hoyas were fairly close, and it's conceivable that the two programs could see each other two more times this Sunday.
The Tigers will also send a second varsity (seeded fifth), a third varsity (seeded fourth) and a novice eight (seeded third). Princeton claimed the novice title in 2006 and has a solid chance to claim another crown. The Tigers defeated second-seeded Navy in the season opener and lost to Yale last month, while Navy defeated the Bulldogs during the season.
Row2k.com will provide links to updated racing results on Sunday, and GoPrincetonTigers.com will have a full recap of all four programs Sunday evening.