Lightweight Sprint Nearly Steals IRA Championship, But Silver Finish Remains Program's Best Since 2010

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Maybe if the race was 2100 meters, the finish could have been different. Maybe if it was in a week, Princeton would have gained just enough speed to flip the result.

But neither was the case, and senior co-captain James Sincavage was at peace with it. After all, he walked away from the 2018 IRA Championships with a silver medal around his neck after one of the most rewarding seasons for the Princeton men's lightweight rowing team in quite some time.

"We definitely had the best race of our season today, and that was our goal going into it," Sincavage said. "For us to finish our season, and for me to finish my career at Princeton, having our best race of the season, that's certainly all we could ask for. Every single stroke, everybody was giving it their absolute best. Every guy in the boat wanted to win it for each other, which is huge."

The headwind on Mercer Lake was so challenging that it forced the cancellation of the fours racing during Sunday's championship session. Top-seeded Columbia, which held off Princeton in both the regular season and at Sprints, grabbed the early edge over the Tigers in the V8 grand final, but Princeton kept contact with the Lions throughout.

The two boats traded pushes over the middle 1,000 meters, which left Princeton in a spot it has thrived in all season. The Tigers posted a record-setting sprint to win the Platt Cup, and they rallied to take a thrilling Goldthwait Cup, and they had one final charge in them. Unfortunately, they made up most of the deficit, but not all, and Columbia won its second national title in three seasons by about 3-4 seats. The final margin was less than one second, the closest result in the three Princeton-Columbia meetings.

"We started the sprint early," Sincavage said. "We started pushing back. We ran out of lake a little bit. We were closing fast, closing hard. We had our best race of the year. It's always bittersweet to not come out with the victory, but we're really proud of each other and proud of the work we put in."

Princeton continued to make big gains over the rest of the collegiate field. While the Tigers had their share of close racing during the regular season, nobody else was able to get close to Princeton Sunday morning. Harvard took the bronze, but the Crimson finished nearly five seconds behind the Tigers, and nobody else was within six seconds.

Princeton's V8 silver medal is its best finish at IRA since winning gold in 2010, and it is only the second V8 medal in the national championships over the last eight years. While the production of senior co-captains Sincavage and James Goble will be challenging to replace, the Tigers will return six rowers and coxswain Sydney Edwards from its IRA silver medalist boat, with five of the nine as current underclassmen.

"James and I have loved Princeton Rowing, and we've been fortunate enough to be contributors on this team for a long time," Sincavage said. "To have seven other people coming back next year, that's phenomenal. We're so excited for them. I hope to be here next year seeing them cross the finish line first. It'll feel to me like I won it myself. I'm so proud of those guys, they work so hard, and they definitely deserve all the success they're going to have."

LIGHTWEIGHT EIGHT GRAND FINAL
Columbia 6:18.782
Princeton 6:19.514
Harvard 6:24.255
Penn 6:26.130
Navy 6:28.429
Yale 6:33.264

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