Princeton University Athletics
The Top Stories In Princeton Athletics In 2016
December 30, 2016 | General
Here are the top moments of the year in Princeton Athletics, taken from the final two TigerBlogs of 2016. To read them in their entirety, click HERE FOR PART I and HERE FOR PART II. And happy new year to everyone.
The No. 1 story of the year in Princeton Athletics is the gold medal won by Ashleigh Johnson in water polo at the Rio Olympics. Johnson led the U.S. team through the tournament, basically destroying everyone along the way. She was the best player in the tournament, the goalie who made one amazing save after another.
She also earned a ton of great publicity, for herself, for U.S. water polo and for Princeton. She appeared all over TV and the internet, and each time she did, the world saw her smile, heard her enthusiasm and marveled even more at the young woman who was such dominant player in the pool.
Yes, that's clearly the No. 1 story of the year.
Or is it?
It wasn't a Princeton story; it was an Olympic story. So does that count? On the one hand, it has to be a Princeton event. On the other hand, it has to be by a current Princeton undergrad, which she is.
In fact, she is the second Princeton athlete ever to win an Olympic gold medal and then return to compete at Princeton. The other was Bill Bradley.
While TigerBlog mulls over whether or not Johnson's gold medal is No. 1 or not eligible, he'll go to the rest of the countdown.
Here, then, are the top stories in Princeton Athletics for 2016, chosen exclusively by TigerBlog. That means you can blame him if you disagree.
No. 11/10 - Women's rowing shocks No. 1 Brown
The Ivy League championships were originally scheduled for Mercer Lake, but wind conditions forced a change to Lake Carnegie. Princeton then made itself at home, rowing past No. 1 Brown to win its third Ivy League championship in four years. Princeton had lost to Brown by three seconds in its first race of the year, and the Bears came into the Ivy championships ranked No. 1 in the country. Princeton, though, got out to a good start, had a lead of about a length and the midway point and then pulled away to win by more than 2.5 seconds.
No. 10/9 - Softball wins Ivy title on the road
The Princeton softball team ran away from the rest of the South Division, winning by five games to reach the Ivy League championship series. The opponent? Harvard, the North champ, who would be the host team in the event by virtue of having a better record during the regular season. And before 2016, how many teams had won on the road in the Ivy championship series? None. Princeton won Game 1 by a 2-1 score and then, 41 hours later due to rain, lost Game 2 7-1. That left a winner-take-all Game 3, in which Princeton would score in only one inning, the second. Of course, when you put up eight runs in that inning, it usually stands up, as it did in the 8-3 Tiger win. It was the first Ivy title for the program since 2009, and it sent the Tigers to the NCAA tournament, where it fell to James Madison and Longwood.
No. 9/8 - Women's hockey wins Ivy title and gets at-large NCAA bid
The women's hockey team rallied to force overtime in Game 3 of its ECAC quarterfinal series with just 15 seconds remaining, but St. Lawrence would score in overtime to eliminate the Tigers and seemingly end Princeton's season. Instead, the 22 wins that Princeton put up during the year, as well as the Ivy League championship it won, created a resume that earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, the second in program history. The Tigers would have to play at Minnesota, which was just fine with them, and Princeton would score in the first minute before the Gophers went on to win 6-2. Minnesota would then win the NCAA championship.
No. 8/7 - A dramatic turnaround in men's hockey
Princeton played 33 men's hockey games in 2016. For the first 23, the Tigers were 1-18-4, with a win over American International in January the lone victory. The last seven of those games came to start the 2016-17 season, and Princeton went 0-6-1 in those games. In fact, Princeton was the only Division I team without a win prior to Thanksgiving. And then? The switch was flipped. In the final 10 games of 2016, Princeton went an astonishing 7-2-1. During that time, Princeton won five games against ranked teams, including four over teams ranked in the top 10. For each of the last three weekends it played, Princeton produced the leading scorer in Division I. Princeton's goals scored per game went from 1.74 per game in the first 23 to 3.90 in the last 10. As the year ended, Princeton was receiving votes in the national poll.
No. 7/6 - Wrestling, outdoors and indoors
The Princeton wrestling team came really, really close to winning the Ivy League championship in 2016, which is an extraordinary accomplishment. The Tigers were unbeaten against the rest of the league and then pushed Cornell before falling, finishing in second place. It was the best finish by the Tigers in the league in 30 years, and Princeton then had its best EIWA finish in 38 years. Princeton also had an All-America (Brett Harner), which, among other things, led to Harner's being allowed to ride on the Jadwin Gym elevator. The 2016-17 season has gotten off to another strong start, with the addition of freshman Matt Kolodzik, who has already moved into the top three nationally in his weight class. In addition, Princeton also wrestled outdoors at Rutgers in High Point Solutions Stadium, where more than 20,000 fans watched on a perfect November afternoon.
6/5 Peter Farrell, Susan Teeter announce their retirements
Peter Farrell and Susan Teeter? That's 72 years and 44 Ivy League championships won between them. Teeter, the longtime women's swimming and diving coach, announced her retirement effective at the end of the 2017 season, but she announced it earlier this month, which makes it a 2016 story. Teeter has led Princeton to 17 Ivy titles in her 33 years at Princeton, and she's also coached 22 All-Americas. Farrell announced his retirement in the spring after spending 39 years as the head coach of women's track and field and cross country. During that time, he won 27 Ivy titles and coached 55 All-Americas and 182 individual Ivy champs. More than their coaching resumes, Teeter and Farrell have influenced a few thousand or so athletes who have competed for them, and they have been legendary ambassadors of Princeton Athletics.
5/4 The field hockey team reaches the Final Four
The field hockey season seemed to be over after back-to-back overtime losses to Harvard and Cornell late in the year. In fact, as it turned out, it hadn't even begun yet. First, Princeton finished the regular season with a big win over Penn. Then the Tigers got a second chance, with an NCAA tournament at-large bid, accomplished because of a strong non-league schedule and some big wins, including over Delaware. Princeton then made the most of this chance, defeating Penn State 2-1 at Penn State in the first round and then knocking off Virginia 3-2 on a goal with one second to play to reach the Final Four. Princeton's run ended with a 3-2 loss to Delaware on another late goal, and Delaware would then win the championship game as well. For Princeton, it was a tremendous way to end Year 1 under new head coach Carla Tagliente and top assistant Dina Rizzo.
4/3 The baseball team goes from seven wins to an Ivy title and the NCAA regionals
Princeton won seven games for the entire 2015 baseball season, which was the fewest in Division I. The 2016 Tigers won nearly twice that many in the Ivy league alone, going 13-7 to win the Gehrig Division by three games and to earn the host role in the Ivy League Championship Series. Princeton had to wait an extra week to play, as Dartmouth and Yale had to have a playoff to see who would be the Rolfe Division champ, which would turn out to be Yale. The Tigers and Bulldogs then split the first two games, and Princeton would fall behind 1-0 in the top of the first in Game 3. The game stayed that way until the bottom of the ninth, when Princeton scored two runs - on a single, a walk, a wild pitch, back-to-back hit batters, a strikeout and a wild pitch. Final score, 2-1 Princeton. With the Ivy League title salted away, Princeton then earned a spot in the NCAA regional at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.
3/2 The women's basketball team again makes history
Princeton has accomplished a lot in women's basketball in recent years, with five Ivy League championships since 2010 and a perfect regular season and the first NCAA tournament win in program history in 2014-15. The 2015-16 Princeton women's basketball team still found a way to do something that had never been done before, not by Princeton or any other Ivy League team. Princeton finished an excruciating second in the league, losing a pair of two-point games to Ivy champ Penn, but none of that really mattered come the NCAA tournament selections, when Princeton earned an at-large bid. It was the first at-large bid in Ivy League basketball history - men's or women's - and as such it marked the first time ever that the Ivy League would get two bids to one NCAA basketball tournament, in either gender. For Princeton, it was the sixth NCAA tournament appearance in the last seven years.
2/1 An Ivy championship in football
It has long been TigerBlog's contention that there aren't too many more exciting football teams to watch than Princeton, with its innovative offense of using multiple quarterbacks and its head coach's willingness to take chances others don't. The 2016 Tigers took that to another level, adjusting the offense in new directions and coupling it with one of the best defenses the program has had in a long time. The result? An Ivy League championship. Princeton went 8-2 overall and 6-1 in the league to earn a share of the championship with Penn. For those who forgot, Princeton defeated Penn 28-0 in a completely dominating performance. The Tigers finished the season as the highest scoring Ivy team as well as the Ivy team that allowed the fewest points, in league games and all games. In Ivy games alone, Princeton scored 48 more points than the next best team and allowed 43 fewer points than the next best. In fact, the last time an Ivy team scored at least 250 points and allowed fewer than 75 (as Princeton did this year with 252 for and 74 against) was in 2002; the time before that was never. Princeton would have six first-team All-Ivy selections 18 total All-Ivy selections, two Bushnell Cup finalists, one Bushnell Cup winner, two All-Americas and one first-team All-America.
1/Doesn't count - Ashleigh Johnson
The No. 1 story of the year in Princeton Athletics is the gold medal won by Ashleigh Johnson in water polo at the Rio Olympics. Johnson led the U.S. team through the tournament, basically destroying everyone along the way. She was the best player in the tournament, the goalie who made one amazing save after another.
She also earned a ton of great publicity, for herself, for U.S. water polo and for Princeton. She appeared all over TV and the internet, and each time she did, the world saw her smile, heard her enthusiasm and marveled even more at the young woman who was such dominant player in the pool.
Yes, that's clearly the No. 1 story of the year.
Or is it?
It wasn't a Princeton story; it was an Olympic story. So does that count? On the one hand, it has to be a Princeton event. On the other hand, it has to be by a current Princeton undergrad, which she is.
In fact, she is the second Princeton athlete ever to win an Olympic gold medal and then return to compete at Princeton. The other was Bill Bradley.
While TigerBlog mulls over whether or not Johnson's gold medal is No. 1 or not eligible, he'll go to the rest of the countdown.
Here, then, are the top stories in Princeton Athletics for 2016, chosen exclusively by TigerBlog. That means you can blame him if you disagree.
No. 11/10 - Women's rowing shocks No. 1 Brown
The Ivy League championships were originally scheduled for Mercer Lake, but wind conditions forced a change to Lake Carnegie. Princeton then made itself at home, rowing past No. 1 Brown to win its third Ivy League championship in four years. Princeton had lost to Brown by three seconds in its first race of the year, and the Bears came into the Ivy championships ranked No. 1 in the country. Princeton, though, got out to a good start, had a lead of about a length and the midway point and then pulled away to win by more than 2.5 seconds.
No. 10/9 - Softball wins Ivy title on the road
The Princeton softball team ran away from the rest of the South Division, winning by five games to reach the Ivy League championship series. The opponent? Harvard, the North champ, who would be the host team in the event by virtue of having a better record during the regular season. And before 2016, how many teams had won on the road in the Ivy championship series? None. Princeton won Game 1 by a 2-1 score and then, 41 hours later due to rain, lost Game 2 7-1. That left a winner-take-all Game 3, in which Princeton would score in only one inning, the second. Of course, when you put up eight runs in that inning, it usually stands up, as it did in the 8-3 Tiger win. It was the first Ivy title for the program since 2009, and it sent the Tigers to the NCAA tournament, where it fell to James Madison and Longwood.
No. 9/8 - Women's hockey wins Ivy title and gets at-large NCAA bid
The women's hockey team rallied to force overtime in Game 3 of its ECAC quarterfinal series with just 15 seconds remaining, but St. Lawrence would score in overtime to eliminate the Tigers and seemingly end Princeton's season. Instead, the 22 wins that Princeton put up during the year, as well as the Ivy League championship it won, created a resume that earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, the second in program history. The Tigers would have to play at Minnesota, which was just fine with them, and Princeton would score in the first minute before the Gophers went on to win 6-2. Minnesota would then win the NCAA championship.
No. 8/7 - A dramatic turnaround in men's hockey
Princeton played 33 men's hockey games in 2016. For the first 23, the Tigers were 1-18-4, with a win over American International in January the lone victory. The last seven of those games came to start the 2016-17 season, and Princeton went 0-6-1 in those games. In fact, Princeton was the only Division I team without a win prior to Thanksgiving. And then? The switch was flipped. In the final 10 games of 2016, Princeton went an astonishing 7-2-1. During that time, Princeton won five games against ranked teams, including four over teams ranked in the top 10. For each of the last three weekends it played, Princeton produced the leading scorer in Division I. Princeton's goals scored per game went from 1.74 per game in the first 23 to 3.90 in the last 10. As the year ended, Princeton was receiving votes in the national poll.
No. 7/6 - Wrestling, outdoors and indoors
The Princeton wrestling team came really, really close to winning the Ivy League championship in 2016, which is an extraordinary accomplishment. The Tigers were unbeaten against the rest of the league and then pushed Cornell before falling, finishing in second place. It was the best finish by the Tigers in the league in 30 years, and Princeton then had its best EIWA finish in 38 years. Princeton also had an All-America (Brett Harner), which, among other things, led to Harner's being allowed to ride on the Jadwin Gym elevator. The 2016-17 season has gotten off to another strong start, with the addition of freshman Matt Kolodzik, who has already moved into the top three nationally in his weight class. In addition, Princeton also wrestled outdoors at Rutgers in High Point Solutions Stadium, where more than 20,000 fans watched on a perfect November afternoon.
6/5 Peter Farrell, Susan Teeter announce their retirements
Peter Farrell and Susan Teeter? That's 72 years and 44 Ivy League championships won between them. Teeter, the longtime women's swimming and diving coach, announced her retirement effective at the end of the 2017 season, but she announced it earlier this month, which makes it a 2016 story. Teeter has led Princeton to 17 Ivy titles in her 33 years at Princeton, and she's also coached 22 All-Americas. Farrell announced his retirement in the spring after spending 39 years as the head coach of women's track and field and cross country. During that time, he won 27 Ivy titles and coached 55 All-Americas and 182 individual Ivy champs. More than their coaching resumes, Teeter and Farrell have influenced a few thousand or so athletes who have competed for them, and they have been legendary ambassadors of Princeton Athletics.
5/4 The field hockey team reaches the Final Four
The field hockey season seemed to be over after back-to-back overtime losses to Harvard and Cornell late in the year. In fact, as it turned out, it hadn't even begun yet. First, Princeton finished the regular season with a big win over Penn. Then the Tigers got a second chance, with an NCAA tournament at-large bid, accomplished because of a strong non-league schedule and some big wins, including over Delaware. Princeton then made the most of this chance, defeating Penn State 2-1 at Penn State in the first round and then knocking off Virginia 3-2 on a goal with one second to play to reach the Final Four. Princeton's run ended with a 3-2 loss to Delaware on another late goal, and Delaware would then win the championship game as well. For Princeton, it was a tremendous way to end Year 1 under new head coach Carla Tagliente and top assistant Dina Rizzo.
4/3 The baseball team goes from seven wins to an Ivy title and the NCAA regionals
Princeton won seven games for the entire 2015 baseball season, which was the fewest in Division I. The 2016 Tigers won nearly twice that many in the Ivy league alone, going 13-7 to win the Gehrig Division by three games and to earn the host role in the Ivy League Championship Series. Princeton had to wait an extra week to play, as Dartmouth and Yale had to have a playoff to see who would be the Rolfe Division champ, which would turn out to be Yale. The Tigers and Bulldogs then split the first two games, and Princeton would fall behind 1-0 in the top of the first in Game 3. The game stayed that way until the bottom of the ninth, when Princeton scored two runs - on a single, a walk, a wild pitch, back-to-back hit batters, a strikeout and a wild pitch. Final score, 2-1 Princeton. With the Ivy League title salted away, Princeton then earned a spot in the NCAA regional at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.
3/2 The women's basketball team again makes history
Princeton has accomplished a lot in women's basketball in recent years, with five Ivy League championships since 2010 and a perfect regular season and the first NCAA tournament win in program history in 2014-15. The 2015-16 Princeton women's basketball team still found a way to do something that had never been done before, not by Princeton or any other Ivy League team. Princeton finished an excruciating second in the league, losing a pair of two-point games to Ivy champ Penn, but none of that really mattered come the NCAA tournament selections, when Princeton earned an at-large bid. It was the first at-large bid in Ivy League basketball history - men's or women's - and as such it marked the first time ever that the Ivy League would get two bids to one NCAA basketball tournament, in either gender. For Princeton, it was the sixth NCAA tournament appearance in the last seven years.
2/1 An Ivy championship in football
It has long been TigerBlog's contention that there aren't too many more exciting football teams to watch than Princeton, with its innovative offense of using multiple quarterbacks and its head coach's willingness to take chances others don't. The 2016 Tigers took that to another level, adjusting the offense in new directions and coupling it with one of the best defenses the program has had in a long time. The result? An Ivy League championship. Princeton went 8-2 overall and 6-1 in the league to earn a share of the championship with Penn. For those who forgot, Princeton defeated Penn 28-0 in a completely dominating performance. The Tigers finished the season as the highest scoring Ivy team as well as the Ivy team that allowed the fewest points, in league games and all games. In Ivy games alone, Princeton scored 48 more points than the next best team and allowed 43 fewer points than the next best. In fact, the last time an Ivy team scored at least 250 points and allowed fewer than 75 (as Princeton did this year with 252 for and 74 against) was in 2002; the time before that was never. Princeton would have six first-team All-Ivy selections 18 total All-Ivy selections, two Bushnell Cup finalists, one Bushnell Cup winner, two All-Americas and one first-team All-America.
1/Doesn't count - Ashleigh Johnson
Tuesday, June 30
Tuesday, June 30
Thursday, June 11
Wednesday, June 10