Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
NCAA Day 2
Players Mentioned
Open Crew Qualifies Two NCAA Finalists, Including Varsity Eight
May 29, 2010 | Women's Rowing - Open
The second-ranked Princeton open crew will send two boats to grand finals during Sunday's final session of the 2010 NCAA Championships. The Tigers remain in the hunt for a team national title, although it will need a perfect final day to hold off Virginia and California, both of which sent all three boats to the finals.
The Princeton 1V, which went a perfect 12-0 on the regular season and missed out on an EAWRC/Ivy League title by less than one second against Yale, won its semifinal heat to earn a second straight berth in the NCAA grand final. The Princeton 2V, which won the EAWRC title two weeks ago, comfortably qualified for its grand final, placing second in the semifinal heat.
The varsity four placed fourth in its semifinal heat, falling to Wisconsin by more than four seconds, and will compete in the petite final Sunday. While Virginia and Cal qualified all three of its boats in the grand finals, both Princeton and Stanford qualified its 1V and 2V boats.
Those four crews figure most likely to compete for the 2010 NCAA team title, which goes to the program with the best aggregate score of all three boats following Sunday's finals. Scores are weighted, with the first varsity finish being worth the most points, while the varsity four finish is worth the least.
Should Princeton win each race tomorrow, it will end up with 90 team points (48 for winning the 1V, 32 for winning the 2V, 10 for winning the V4 petite final); no team has topped 90 points since 1998, when Washington won the team title with 91 points. Last season, Stanford won the title with 88 points, three more than second-place Cal.
Princeton will begin competition with the V4 petite final at 10 a.m. PST, and then compete in the 2V grand final at 11 a.m. The final race of the weekend will be the V8 grand final, held at 11:45 a.m. Heading into that race, Princeton will know if it is still in the championship hunt and, if so, exactly what it will need to win its first NCAA team title.
Saturday's semifinal day got off to a perfect start, as the 1V went wire-to-wire to win its semifinal heat. Princeton sprinted out of the gate and had more than a one-second advantage through the first 500 meters. USC and Stanford both made up ground during the middle 1,000 meters, but Princeton still had the lead heading into the final split. Led by co-captains Ariel Frost and Sara Hendershot, the 1V had the fastest final split in the field to win in 6:18.76. Both Stanford and USC qualified for the grand final.
The Tiger 2V, coming off its EAWRC title, found itself in a battle with 2009 NCAA champion Stanford in its semifinal heat. Princeton was the only team within two seconds of Stanford after 500 meters, but it also built a good lead over Wisconsin and Michigan. Needing only one of the top three spots to qualify for the grand final, Princeton entered the second half of the race with a lead of more than three seconds on the pair of Big 10 schools. Michigan made a move forward and ended up with an open water edge over Wisconsin, but neither could catch either Stanford or Princeton. The Cardinal won the race in 16:28.94, while Princeton took second in 6:33.24.
Princeton got out to a tough start in its V4 semifinal heat and could never make up enough ground to reach the grand final. The Tigers' opening split of 1:47.27 was fifth best and left them one second behind Michigan, which was third early on. The Tigers picked off Michigan by the 1,000-meter mark, but fourth-place Wisconsin stayed up front and moved into third at the midway point. Virginia was comfortably in front and won the race in 7:07.28, while USC held off a hard-charging Wisconsin boat for second. Princeton finished in 7:18.11, more than four seconds behind Wisconsin, and will move to the petite final.
Princeton has never won an NCAA team title, but has reached the overall medal stand twice. In 1997, Princeton finished second overall; in 2006, when Princeton had the dominant V8 national champion, the Tigers placed third overall.