Players Mentioned
Open Women Continue Building Speed, Will Face Columbia On Lake Carnegie
April 03, 2015 | Women's Rowing - Open
She may still be an underclassman, but Georgie Howe has experience in what the Princeton open rowing team is facing right now.
As a freshman, Howe moved into the varsity eight after a brutal winter last season. The Tigers spent the majority of the regular season finding their speed, and they peaked in time to repeat as Ivy champion.
That same goal remains in front of Howe, though a loaded Brown team established themselves as early favorites last weekend with an eight-second win over Princeton. Regardless, Howe understands that the Ivy League title won't be on the line at any point this month, and her team needs to use each and every opportunity on the water to get faster.
“The boat is really working on gelling together,” Howe said. “All the girls are great, experienced racers, everyone gets along really well on and off the water. The rhythm is coming along really nicely, which is something that is tough to find quickly, and we need to do it after having had such limited water time.”
Princeton had its first taste of competition last Saturday in a showdown of three teams ranked in the Top 8 nationally. While Brown, ranked second in this week's poll, claimed a win, the Tigers posted a win over the Wolverines and jumped over them in this week's poll.
“The boat was very positive about the race, of course we would have loved to be on the other side of Brown, but we are very excited to gain speed as the season progresses,” Howe said. “Beating Michigan was also a goal, as they were ranked above us, and it was partly redeeming of our NCAA semifinal last spring.”
That semifinal turned into a four-team thriller over the final 200 meters, with a half second difference between the first- and fourth-place boats. Michigan was able to take the final spot in the NCAA grand final, barely edging Princeton by only .23 of a second.
The 2015 season opener may not have completely erased the disappointment of that result, but it also showed that this Princeton boat is in a good place right now after a winter full of good work inside the Shea Rowing Center. Now Princeton has to translate that work into speed in its boats, a process that will continue this Saturday when the seventh-ranked Tigers host Columbia at 10:40 am.
The race was originally scheduled for Overpeck Park, but conditions forced it to be moved to Lake Carnegie. It gives Princeton an opportunity to compete at home over the first three weeks, a big advantage as the team looks to continue gaining chemistry together.
“Every practice is important in the spring,” Howe said. “Everyone in the boat and on the team feels the urgency and excitement of racing, Brown/Michigan was a steep learning curve, but we have gathered knowledge from that race and moving forward we are extremely excited to see what we can do.”
SATURDAY RACING SCHEDULE
Heavyweight Men vs. Navy
9:00 AM - Fifth Varsity
9:20 AM - Fourth Varsity
9:40 AM - Third Varsity
10:00 AM - Second Varsity
10:20 AM - First Varsity, Navy-Princeton Rowing Cup
Open Women vs. Columbia
10:40 AM - First Varsity
11:00 AM - Second & Third Varsity
11:20 AM - A Fours
11:40 AM - B & C Fours
Princeton Lightweight Men vs. Navy & Columbia
2:30 PM - Fifth Varsity
2:45 PM - Fourth Varsity
3:00 PM - Third Varsity
3:15 PM - Second Varsity
3:30 PM - First Varsity, Murtaugh Cup
Lightweight Women are off