Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
The Compton Cup: Harvard and MIT
Players Mentioned
Third-Ranked Heavies End Eight-Year Drought, Reclaim Compton Cup v. Harvard
April 18, 2015 | Heavyweight Rowing
The third-ranked Princeton heavyweights won its 15th Compton Cup, and its first since 2006, by 4.5 seconds over fourth-ranked Harvard Saturday morning. The Tigers continued a terrific start by their entire program by winning all four races on Lake Carnegie.
"Today was an amazing team effort from every boat," junior Patrick Eble said. "It is always a goal of ours to have a great team performance and today was a step in the right direction. In terms of the varsity race and the Compton Cup, there is so much history involved and we were happy to return the cup to Princeton after nine years. Everyone was happy to get the win today, but the Compton cup isn't our end goal. We are looking to gain more speed for our upcoming two races and sprints."
The Tigers had lost every showdown with Harvard since the 2006 season until the 2014 IRA grand final, when Princeton pushed past the Crimson for fourth place. They followed that up Saturday morning by grabbing an early lead against the Crimson and consistently fending off every challenge to win in 5:43.9; Harvard took second in 5:48.4.
Not only was this Princeton's first Content Cup win in nine years, but it was the Tigers' first win in this series on Lake Carnegie since 2001.
"I think that we executed a solid race," Eble said. "We were internal for the first portion of our race and because of that we were able to find a great base rhythm. Our plan wasn't to try and immediately grab the lead, but we were focused on really just finding a solid base together."
The Princeton second varsity also kept their perfect season intact by winning a showdown with both the Harvard 2V and Harvard freshman eight in 5:46.5 The Tiger 3V and 4V were also winners during the morning.
The challenges hardly ended for the Tigers Saturday morning, though. They will make their first road trip of the season next weekend when they head to the Cayuga Inlet for a Carnegie Cup showdown with No. 5 Yale and No. 9 Cornell. After that, Princeton will return home for the regular season finale, a Content Cup showdown with sixth-ranked Brown.
"Over the next two weeks, we need to make sure that we continue to focus on the day to day things in our boat that we can control," Eble said. "The Carnegie Cup and the Content Cup will both be tough races and we need to ensure that we build speed every day. Our goal is Sprints and IRA's so while winning duel races is important to us, we need to keep our end goal in mind moving forward."
Varsity Eight
Princeton 5:43.9
Harvard 5:48.4
MIT 6:04.5
Second Varsity Eight
Princeton 2V 5:42.6
Harvard 1st-fresh 5:46.5
Harvard 2V 5:46.8
Third Varsity Eight
Princeton 5:49.4
Harvard 5:54.3
Fourth/Fifth Varsity Eight
Princeton 4V 06:02.6
Harvard 4V 06:06.9
Princeton 5V 06:26.8
LINEUPS:
1V
C Pesce
8 Masters
7 Konttinen
6 Mead
5 Barakso
4 Vystavel
3 Eble
2 Hamp
1 Benstead
2V
C Barton
8 Goldman
7 Barker
6 Octeau
5 D¹Agonstino
4 Livingstone
3 Chance
2 Northrop
1 Francis
3V
cox: Mcfall
8: Stein
7: Lord
6: Grimberg
5: Bernhard
4: Guyett
3: Wambersie
2: Bartolucci
1: Meder
4V:
Cox: Coates
8: Johnston
7: Romeyn
6: Lawton
5: Toch
4: Bradbury
3: Dauson
2: Lindburg
1: Grant Evans
Cox: Sola
8. Helmers
7. Ferguson
6. Vaughn
5. Whitlow
4. Ruscus
3. Moskovitz
2. Michael
1. Segal