Princeton University Athletics
April 09, 2015 | Heavyweight Rowing
NATIONAL POLL l CHILDS CUP HISTORY
While the main event of the 2014 racing season came during the varsity eight IRA final at nearby Lake Mercer, there was another race that day that told a great deal about the state of the Princeton heavyweight program.
Minutes before the Tiger varsity would place fourth in the V8 final — its best finish since 2006 — the Princeton 2V put together its best race of the season in its own grand final. The Tigers knocked off both its Ivy League brethren and Washington, the current standard in the sport, and took silver behind only California.
With Top-4 finishes in the two biggest races at IRAs, it was very clear that something special was happening at Princeton.
“I think we surprised pretty much everybody, including ourselves, by the way we decided to dictate and attack the race the way we did,” said senior David Octeau, who rowed in the 2-seat. “[Assistant coach] Spencer Washburn told us before the race that winning would require our greatest and most selfless effort of the year, and that's exactly what we did. There was no doubt in my mind that we could medal. It was more the way that we, as a boat, had complete trust in one another at that moment, and made the decision to go for the gold that I'll remember most.
“In my many years of playing sports, it was the first time I finished a race or game feeling like nothing could have gone any better and that we achieved our full potential,” he added. “That's a rare moment you remember for a long time as an athlete.”
Since taking over the program in 2010, heavyweight head coach Greg Hughes has worked to instill a culture based on hard work and camaraderie within his program, and the results are becoming more evident every year. Both of his top boats medaled at the 2014 Sprints, and each of his top three made their respective IRA grand finals.
Octeau, who is part of Princeton's undefeated 2V through the young 2015 season, has experienced the culture development over his four years at Princeton. Because of that, he knows that he can be proud of what that boat achieved, but he certainly can't become complacent now.
“Since I've been here the training has ramped up a lot in terms of intensity and volume, and I think races like this just confirm that we are on the right track with the work we put in all season long,” he said. “Besides that, I try to not think about last year too much. It's a different boat with different guys and overall a very different character. You can't get too caught up in how it feels compared to the year before. We just need to keep working on making this boat as fast as possible before the championship season.”
Championship season is still more than a month away, but the Ivy League season will begin Saturday morning during the annual Childs Cup regatta. The fourth-ranked heavyweights will welcome both Penn and Columbia to Lake Carnegie to open the morning racing.
The Childs Cup is the oldest trophy in all of collegiate rowing. First earned by Penn following an 1879 regatta on the Schuylkill, Princeton has won 20 of the last 21 — including five in a row — to grab a 47-44-12 advantage in the all-time series. Penn is second with 44, but Columbia was the team that won on Lake Carnegie in 2009.
All of Princeton's top three boats are unbeaten in early-season races with both Georgetown and Navy, and each would love to build on that momentum prior to the highly anticipated April 18 races against Harvard.
Well, the Compton Cup showdown will be anticipated by the racing community, but the Princeton rowers themselves are so immersed in their culture of daily growth that those races seem far in the distance. For Octeau, he has been pleased with the first two 2V races of the season, but he knows there is a ways to go.
“I think they were good performances, and we did what we had to do,” he said. “The younger guys in the boat got to race for the first time, and get the jitters out a bit. Other than that this week we're just trying to keep testing ourselves and improving a little more than all the other boats every day. I am excited about the group of guys that we have, and I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish down the line.”
