Princeton University Athletics
Princeton Rowing Wins Clayton Chapman Award As IRA's Most Improved
June 08, 2010 | Heavyweight Rowing, Women's Rowing - Lightweight, Men's Rowing - Lightweight
Not only did each of Princeton's rowing squads have successful individual performances at Saturday's IRA national championship regatta, but the program as a whole had a terrific weekend. Princeton was honored with the Clayton Chapman Award as the most improved program at the 2010 IRA Championships.
The award honors the trio of Princeton rowing programs (heavyweight men, lightweight men and lightweight women) who competed at the IRA championships last weekend; the Tiger open crew competes at the NCAA Championships, so it isn't included in this award.
Leading the way for the Princeton rowing program was the lightweight men, which captured its second straight national championship with a victory over Navy and Harvard. While you couldn't necessarily improve on the 2009 national championship, the men's lightweight crew maintained its spot on top of the sport.
The women's lightweights made their way back to the IRA medal stand with a strong performance in Saturday's grand final. While both Stanford and Wisconsin proved to be too strong, the Tigers were dominant against the remaining Eastern crews and earned a bronze medal after a fifth-place finish in 2008 and a sixth-place finish in 2009.
The heavyweights saw their biggest improvement from the freshman eight, which earned its first IRA medal since 2003. The novice boat knocked off previously unbeaten Harvard and Ivy rival Cornell to earn a bronze in Saturday's grand final.