Princeton University Athletics
Top-Ranked Lightweight Showdown Highlights Road Weekend For Tiger Crew
April 24, 2009 | Heavyweight Rowing, Women's Rowing - Open, Women's Rowing - Lightweight, Men's Rowing - Lightweight
The Princeton men's lightweight crew has won 11 straight regular-season races, dating back to last season, but the top-ranked Tigers have their biggest test ahead. No. 2 Harvard and No. 4 Yale await Princeton in New Haven, Conn., for the highlight event of the Princeton rowing weekend.
All four Princeton crews will be on the road, including the undefeated men's lightweights, which will head to the Housatonic River to compete for The Goldthwait and Vogel Cups this weekend in the annual H-Y-P meet. The Goldthwait Cup goes to the winner of the first varsity competition; Princeton won that trophy last year for the first time since 1999. Should Princeton or Harvard win the first varsity race, that team will assuredly go into the Eastern Sprints (May 10, Worchester, Mass.) as the top seed. If Yale wins on its home course, it would probably be either the first or second seed (along with third-ranked Navy).
The Vogel Cup goes to the overall points winner of the regatta, an honor that went to the Bulldogs last year. Racing will start for Princeton at 9:20 with the third varsity; the Goldthwait Cup showdown will take place at 10:20. Princeton is coming a victory in the Wood-Hammond Trophy regatta; the weekend experience was filmed by members of the team and can be seen here.
The second-ranked women's lightweights also have a big weekend coming up. The Class of 1999 Cup is up for grabs in arguably the most historic rivalry in the sport. Princeton will head to the Charles River to take on Harvard Saturday morning. Princeton won the regatta last year by three seconds against a tough Harvard squad, but the Crimson came back to top Princeton in the IRA national final. Following a season-opening loss to No. 1 Wisconsin, Princeton has won five straight races and is the No. 2 team in the country on all eight polls. Harvard is ranked fourth; if Princeton wins this weekend, it will have defeated the No. 3 (Stanford), No. 4 (Radcliffe), No. 5 (Georgetown), No. 6 (Bucknell) and No. 7 (MIT) teams in the country this season.
The Princeton open women took its shot at reigning NCAA champion Yale last weekend; while the Tigers may not have earned the Eisenberg Cup, they did earn some national respect. The Tigers lost on Yale's own Housatonic River course by less than three seconds and should have more confidence when they meet up with the No. 2 team in the country at Eastern Sprints (May 17, Camden, N.J.). The more immediate goal is topping both Penn and Dartmouth for The Class of 1984 Plaque on the Schuylkill River this weekend. The sixth-ranked Tigers will be looking for their seventh and eighth wins of the season, while both opponents will look to jump into the national Top 20 with the upset.
The Tiger heavyweights may be the team most in need of a momentum-changing victory this weekend. Princeton will head to Cayuga Inlet in Ithaca, N.Y., to take on Cornell and Yale for The Carnegie Cup. After Yale earned a home win for the Cup in 2007, Princeton regained it last season by topping Cornell on Lake Carnegie by 3.3 seconds. The Big Red would like to keep the home trend going and will enter the weekend as the highest-ranked of the three programs, although the three are closely grouped. Cornell is currently ranked ninth, while Yale is ranked 12th and Princeton is 14th.