Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
Olympics Take Backseat To Princeton Goals, Howe Says Before Yale Showdown
April 14, 2016 | Women's Rowing - Open
VIDEO: LIVE STREAM OF SATURDAY RACING
MORE LINKS: GEORGIE HOWE ON TIGERCAST l EISENBERG CUP HISTORY l NATIONAL POLL
Two summers before she began her Tiger rowing career, Georgie Howe watched eight Princetonians compete on the water in the 2012 London Olympics. One, former Sprints heavyweight champion Sam Loch '06, represented her native Australia in the men's 8+ competition.
Does Howe dream of someday representing Australia in the Olympics? Of course.
But she has a more immediate goal that means quite a bit to her.
“I was given the option to take the year off and train with the Australian National Team,” said Howe, who rowed in the Australian W8+ at the 2015 Senior World Championships. “I just had my 22nd birthday, so I still have some years of rowing ahead of me. My priority right now is to make this Princeton boat go as fast as possible. The next Olympic cycle for me is 2020.”
Howe's dedication to Tiger Rowing has been there since Day 1, when she was the lone freshman in Princeton's 2014 Ivy League champion varsity boat. She has been one of the league's top rowers throughout her career, but now she has a veteran presence that can help lead a very young roster.
“I was thinking back to my freshman year to being the young one in the boat with a lot of seniors,” said Howe, a guest on this week's edition of TigerCast. “I always tried to model myself to how they led by example. The practices they did, they always had such high standards, and they always strove for more. I try to bring that to this boat for as much as possible. “I couldn't ask for better captains in Erin, Meghan and Mary Ann, but I do try to take a leadership role by leading by example and keeping the standards as high and realistic as possible,” Howe added.
“The freshmen in the boat are fantastic girls. They strive for more every session, and they also have really high standards. Their rate of improvement is really exciting, and the same is true for our sophomore, Izzy Nappa.”
Princeton set a good foundation for their season during the opening weekend, when it put a major charge into two of the Top 3 boats in the national rankings. Brown left that opener with both the Class of 1987 Cup and, a few days later, the No. 1 ranking in the country, but neither the Bears nor reigning NCAA champion Ohio State could pull away from that Tiger boat.
“We knew it was going to be a burnburner, so getting through the first 600 meters and being up on both those crews was such an adrenaline rush,” she recalled. “We had a bit of a bubble for about 300 meters, and we let Brown and Ohio State slip away from us a little bit, but we moved back into Brown in the sprint and just got nabbed by Ohio State for second at the line.
“We came out of that race with even more fire than what we went in with, because we know we have the speed. And we know we've gained speed since that race, which is really exciting,” Howe said.
Ninth-ranked Princeton has won three straight since the opener, but it hasn't been tested nearly as much as it will this weekend. The Eisenberg Cup will be on the line when fifth-ranked Yale heads to Lake Carnegie for a Saturday morning showdown (9 am start, 10 am 1V8 race); as if the Yale-Princeton showdown wasn't enough, the 11th-ranked USC Trojans will also be in the mix.
This will be the 42nd edition of the Eisenberg Cup regatta. Princeton holds a 40-11 edge in the series and has won each of the last six, but Yale topped the Tigers in both postseason events last year and has been a Top-5 boat all season. While Ivies and, pending qualification, NCAAs could provide more rematches, there is no need to motivate Princeton for Saturday morning.
“We attack every weekend just like we would Ivies and NCAAs,” Howe said. “The annual Princeton-Yale race is always a barnburner. They're such a great team to race. It's always a bloodbath on the water.”
APRIL 16 HOME SCHEDULE (all available on the Ivy League Digital Network)
Princeton Open Women vs. Yale, USC
9:00 • Third Varsity
9:20 • Varsity A4/B4
9:40 • Second Varsity
10:00 • First Varsity - Eisenberg Cup
Princeton Lightweight Men vs. Cornell
10:15 • Fifth & Sixth Varsity
10:30 • Fourth Varsity
10:45 • Third Varsity
11:00 • Second Varsity
11:15 • First Varsity - Platt Cup