Princeton University
EAWRC Sprints
Women's Lights Place Second In Varsity Eight, Win 4s At EAWRCs
May 16, 2010 | Women's Rowing - Lightweight
The Princeton women's lightweights earned a silver medal at the 2010 EAWRC Championships, held Sunday afternoon on Cooper River. The Tigers will get another chance at champion Wisconsin next month when the best programs in the nation meet up again at Cooper River for the IRA national championship regatta.
Princeton earned a gold in the varsity four and a bronze in the novice eight, giving head coach Paul Rassam's program one of each medal on the afternoon.
Wisconsin won the gold medal in the varsity eight final in a time of 6:38.76, less than five seconds faster the silver medalist Princeton, which finished in 6:43.63. The Tigers, who are ranked third nationally behind Wisconsin and western power Stanford, defended their ranking by holding off all challengers behind them. Three weeks after defeating Radcliffe for the Class of 1999 Cup, Princeton topped the Crimson by more than three seconds to clinch the silver.
"The V8 athletes feel that they had a solid piece," Rassam said. "They are proud of it. But they feel that there best racing is still ahead of them. They are hungry to go faster, and look forward to training for IRAs."
Georgetown, Bucknell and MIT rounded out the final finishers in the varsity eight final. All times for the varsity final can be found here.
Like the varsity eight, the varsity four also held off Radcliffe by more than three seconds. Those would be the two boats contending for the gold in that grand final, and Princeton won in 7:57.34; the Tigers were the only one to finish the course in fewer than eight minutes. The results can be found here.
"The four showed great composure today," Rassam said. "They had what was perhaps their best race of the year, and it was at the right time."
Princeton finished the novice eight final in 7:50.04, leaving it behind Wisconsin and Radcliffe.
"I am proud of the character this crew demonstrated over the past month," Rassam said. "They made big improvements and really closed down the gap with some of their opponents."
Princeton will return to the water during the first weekend of June for the IRA championships, a regatta that will include No. 2 Stanford, as well as the top programs from Sunday's EAWRC championships.