Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
IRA National Championships
Players Mentioned
Lightweight Men Continue Progression With 4th-Place IRA Finals, Fours Gold
May 31, 2015 | Men's Rowing - Lightweight
The early push left them susceptible in the final 1000, and Harvard was able to take advantage to gain the final spot on the medal podium. Cornell repeated as national champion in 5:38.989, about two seconds faster than Columbia, while the Lions fended off the Harvard challenge for silver.
Princeton, which was in the lead pack throughout the first half of the race, ended up less than three seconds behind the Crimson. They did make a late push to get back into the medal mix, but the deficit created during the third 500 was too much to overcome.
"We knew we had to throw everything out there, so we 'kitchen sinked' the start and really got off the line well," sophomore Henry Ogilby said. "When we hit that cross wind coming into the 700-meter mark, we wanted a better of a long, stronger rhythm than we had. If we had a little better body, a better sprint, we could have pulled it off."
Though the Tigers left Mercer Lake wishing for more, they quickly realized that one race could not define their season.
"We had a little boat meeting afterwards, and one of the things Marty said to us was that we can be dissatisfied, but not disappointed," Ogilby said. "Obviously we were looking for a better result. We made some changes after Sprints, and we had a great Sprints, but we wanted something a little better. We really laid it on the line there. The effort that we put out was really impressive."
Princeton had a strong weekend overall, placing three boats in grand finals and claiming gold in the fours without coxswain. It was also the second straight year that the varsity eight moved one step closer to the IRA medal stand, as well as the second straight year that the Tigers claimed a Sprints medal.
"I take a lot of pride in it," Ward said after the race. "It takes time to create inertia to build a great team. If you look at the last three years, it was a sixth-place finish, then a fifth-place finish, and now fourth, so it's been small, incremental improvements, capped off by a gold for the four that had some great young guys in it. I take a lot of pride in how this team conducts itself, and how we care more about each other every day."
Head coach Marty Crotty knows that his captain, and the rest of the Class of 2015, played a big role in the growth of the program.
"It's a really tough sport, day in and day out," Crotty said. "You need great leaders and strong leadership to get through those times. Whether it's training, illness, something going on in the boathouse, you need strong leadership to get through. I can't say enough about Casey in how he's held this thing together, including some early-season losses to Columbia and Cornell.
"We had our high points, and we came in here today determined to overtake them, but they're just flat-out fast," Crotty added. "We just weren't able to catch them this year, but that had nothing to do with leadership."
LIGHTWEIGHT EIGHT GRAND FINAL
1 Cornell 5:38.989
2 Columbia 5:41.042
3 Harvard 5:41.965
4 Princeton 5:44.708
5 Yale 5:49.146
6 Penn 5:50.902
LIGHTWEIGHT FOUR GRAND FINAL
1 Yale 6:23.465
2 Columbia 6:25.634
3 Harvard 6:25.882
4 Cornell 6:29.107
5 Princeton 6:31.377
6 Navy 6:34.380
LIGHTWEIGHT FOUR w/o COX GRAND FINAL
1 Princeton 6:12.103
2 Cornell 6:13.571
3 Yale 6:16.573
4 Columbia 6:18.489
5 Harvard 6:18.616
6 Penn 6:22.741
7 Navy 6:25.360