Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Lightweight Women Plan For IRA Return With Same Goals, New Speed
May 28, 2015 | Women's Rowing - Lightweight
LIVE RESULTS l LIVE VIDEO l WEEKEND SCHEDULE l PRINCETON HISTORY AT IRAs
Think about what happened in the four weeks prior to the EAWRC Championships for the Princeton women's lightweights.
Coming off a solid-but-unspectacular performance in San Diego, Princeton figured to be a pretty competitive boat in 2015, though maybe not a true contender for the top prizes. The came the Knecht Cup, when Princeton beat a handful of boats that bettered the Tigers at either the 2014 IRAs or in San Diego.
One week later, Princeton defeated Harvard, the reigning national champion, on the Charles River.
By the time the Tigers had defeated Georgetown, they were the second-ranked boat in the country and a co-favorite for gold at Sprints.
That Sprints final didn't go Princeton's way — the Tigers finished third, behind Harvard and Boston University — but they have had another four weeks now to create something even more special.
“I think after the Sprints result we may be viewed as a bit of a dark horse heading into the weekend, but I also think we have done a good job of maintaining internal confidence in our numbers and hull speed and know the rankings don't define our potential,” sophomore Juliette Hackett said. “Within the four weeks between Sprints and IRAs we have switched up our training a little bit, but throughout this process it has remained clear our eight is continuing to move faster and faster each day. We have been able to break records and reach several goals we had set for ourselves earlier in the season, which is just further validation that our best 2,000 meters are still ahead of us.”
Their last 2,000 meters wasn't terrible — they did medal, topping the likes of Wisconsin and Georgetown — but their goals are significantly higher these days. It was important for Princeton to build upon that performance, as opposed to being weighed down by it.
“We were disappointed with the result of the Sprints final, but I think we took away some valuable insights about the strengths and weaknesses of our race plan,” Hackett said. “In the past few weeks we have had a more internal focus and have been working on solidifying a relentless speed for the base of the 2k. We as individual rowers have been working on sustaining a consistent level of power output, which has in turn boosted our collective speed over 2,000 meters.”
The immediate goal for the upcoming IRA national championships, held this weekend on Mercer Lake, is to race as little as possible. Princeton opens competition Saturday morning at 8 am against Tulsa, Wisconsin, Stanford and Villanova. While top-ranked Stanford will be everybody's target on Sunday, it will be the rest of the field that matters most in that heat.
The Tigers learned that lesson the hard way last year. Boston University upset Princeton in the heat, which left the Tigers in the afternoon rep. They advanced to the final fairly easily, but the damage of the added 2000 meters was done; the Tigers simply didn't have enough fuel in the tank to make their best run at the medal stand that next day.
This year, the goal is to have one good enough race Saturday, and then something spectacular on Sunday.
And if anybody believes this team doubts itself, think again.
“Although the Sprints result didn't pan out the way we wanted, I think we were able to reframe the piece within the larger context of our season and realized the speed and potential we had been showing were still there,” Hackett said. “Our belief in our ability to compete with any crew has certainly continued to manifest itself in our training leading up to IRAs, and we know this belief is essential heading into the IRA races.”