Lightweight Men Post Best Sprints Since 2010, But Have Clear Focus For IRA Championships

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Head coach Marty Crotty could look at his lightweight men's rowing team as it walked away from Lake Quinsigamond Sunday and count 36 medals, half of which were colored gold, and feel awfully good about Princeton's day at the 2018 Eastern Sprints.

He also knows that his team — while sharing that pride — can see the top of the mountain in a not-too-far distance, and will spend every possible moment over the next three weeks trying to reach that peak.

Princeton entered Eastern Sprints as the #2 seed, and it held that position in an impressive display in the 1V grand final in Worcester, Mass. Top-seeded Columbia put forth an impressive display with a quick start and a big lead it wouldn't relinquish, but Princeton was clearly the second-best boat in a lightweight field that had been tightly packed throughout the year.

"All you can ask for is to have the best race of the year," Crotty said. "We did that today, but Columbia is fast. It would have been nice to be next to them and have some overlap over the final 500, but we didn't quite get that. We did make an impression, though. We closed it a bit, but good for Columbia for going and hiding and not coming back."

Princeton had a similar race during the Campbell Cup regatta at Overpeck Park, where it cut a sizable Lions lead into a two-seat edge at the wire. The Tigers started to make a move early in the second half of the race, undoubtedly seeing visions of a similar finish, but Columbia had an earlier answer and took the race by about three seconds.

While Crotty would have enjoyed a tighter finish at the top, he was impressed by the character his crew showed as the golden dreams started to fade.

"Sometimes, a boat gets out like that, and we could have been deflated, but they pushed through and emerged as the clear second boat," he said. "I thought that was a good, mature race. We haven't lost to anybody since that Columbia race, and we either held serve or improved our margin against most of the boats."

"There were a lot of smiling faces, 36 kids with medals," Crotty added. "They hurt last year when we didn't medal in the 1 or the 2, and we were determined all summer. It took a lot of tough love to get it done, but 365 days later, it was a nice step in the right direction."

Princeton will try to take another step in three weeks when it makes the short trip to Mercer Lake in West Windsor, N.J., for the 2018 IRA National Championships.

Princeton finished achingly close to winning its first Jope Cup since 2010, but Columbia's 1V win gave it a one-point edge (35-34) to win the team point title. The Lions added 2V gold, though they needed to rally past a game Tiger crew that sprinted early and led at the 1000 mark, but couldn't quite hold that pace in the second half of the final. Princeton had very impressive wins in both the 3V and 4V, winning gold in those races for the first time since 2016; it was only the second 3V gold for the lightweights since 2010.

"Programs have days like this because of seniors like Ryan Pristo, Blake Lange and Tyler Valicenti, seniors who responded to every assignment we gave them all year and led the 3V to gold today," Crotty said. "That's the kind of leadership we try to encourage, but it doesn't always come the way it did this year. I'm over the moon for those guys that they end their Princeton careers as Eastern champions."

First Varsity
Columbia 6:08.060
Princeton 6:11.002
Penn 6:13.414
Harvard 6:14.854
Navy 6:16.036
Cornell 6:16.649

Second Varsity
Columbia 5:55.198
Cornell 5:58.147
Princeton 5:59.954
Navy 6:01.220
Yale 6:03.758
Harvard 6:04.458

Third Varsity
Princeton 5:59.618
Navy 6:02.031
Harvard 6:02.178
Penn 6:05.669
Columbia 6:05.984
Cornell 6:06.266

Fourth Varsity
Princeton 6:05.535
Navy 6:07.131
Yale 6:11.022
Harvard 6:13.356
Columbia 6:14.882
Penn 6:18.416
Cornell 6:20.959

Fifth Varsity
Navy 6:05.792
Harvard 6:07.716
Navy 6V 6:21.962
Princeton 6:27.336

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