Winning: The Journey of The Women's Rowing Class of 2020

The 2019 Ivy League Championships gave the Class of 2020 its third straight Ivy crown.

Photo by: Ivy League

Winning: The Journey of The Women's Rowing Class of 2020

May 08, 2020 | Women's Rowing - Open

The Class of 2020 came into Princeton as the women's open program had won three Ivy League titles in four years.

It's hard to maintain that level of excellence over an extended period of the time.

The Class of 2020 did just that.

The first race for the group of Amanda Cooleen, Jessica Dyroff, Ariane Fong, Hadley Irwin, Elizabeth Love, Molly Milligan, Annique Nyman, Megan Ostrowski, Emerson Solms and Amelia Stucke started off with a win over Brown and Michigan State in March of 2017.

The next week? A big win over Columbia and Clemson.

The week after? Another decisive victory, this time over Harvard and Cornell.

A true test came a week later as the Tigers defeated Yale by 1.2 seconds. Both boats pulled even into the final 300 meters, but Princeton pulled out the decision.

After the Tigers dropped Dartmouth, they took down the trio of Syracuse, Iowa and Penn on Lake Carnegie to finish the regular season.

At the Ivy League Championships, Princeton's 1V used a strong opening and didn't let Yale or Brown, two top-10 programs, get within contact to secure the 2017 crown. The squad wrapped up the year with a top-10 at the NCAA Championships.

2018 began with a conquest over Brown and Michigan. The month of March finished with easy triumphs over Columbia and Notre Dame.

The team hosted the Ivy League Invitational, picking up the Class of 1975 Cup and Class of 1984 Plaque.

The closest margin was 7.5 seconds.

The group faced a bit of adversity as it was defeated by Iowa though it did secure the Eisenberg Cup by crossing the finish line ahead of Yale.

Princeton went on take down Virginia on the road before closing the regular season with successes over Syracuse and Wisconsin on Lake Carnegie.

At the Ivy League Championships, Princeton continued their run, collecting its fifth conference crown in six years. A half-second lead at the 500m mark turned into a near two-second edge by the 1000, and the final half of the race was simply about keeping the hard-charging field behind them. The 2V also won gold, marking its first Ivy title since 2012. The senior-laden boat came into the weekend as the third seed, but the Tigers used an explosive final sprint to rally past Yale and grab the gold.

The 2V's gold medal held a special meaning for Nyman.

"I had just made the 2V and the boat won for the first time in several years," stated the sophomore at the time. "I'll remember it as one of the proudest days of my college years."

2018 ended on a fabulous note for the program as it earned its best NCAA finish since 2013, securing fifth overall. In the points standings, the Tigers nabbed ninth, its 20th top-ten finish.

How the V8 team got into the Grand Final was particularly memorable.

"In the semifinal, we needed to be top three to advance," said Milligan. We had to beat someone, and we did - beating Michigan to get there and the Grand Final was raced about four hours later because of a tropical storm on the horizon."

The 2019 regular season was a banner one for the squad. The Tigers did not lose a single regular season race with the closest margin set at 2.8 seconds.

That event featured No. 4 Texas and No. 9 Yale to Lake Carnegie. The No. 7 Tigers took the competition over both squads, showing its cause as one of the best teams in the country.

"My favorite race was probably the 2019 Eisenburg Cup, when we beat Texas and Yale," said Irwin. The weather was wild as it had huge bursts of wind and wakes down the course- but I remember crossing the 1,000m mark and someone in the boat yelled YEAH TIGERS! The exhilaration I felt during that race was amazing, I was so proud to be laying it down with my teammates.

Princeton dropped Columbia, Rutgers and Wisconsin a week later to retain the Hewitt & Dauphiny Cup. It gave the team wins over the entire Ivy League.

Following the regular season finale, another victory over Syracuse, the Tigers had a week off to prepare for the 2019 Ivy Championships.

This title was different. The conference was not just using the V8 race as its automatic qualifier, but the winner of the Sally P. Shoemaker Trophy (given to the team with the most points).

Princeton left little doubt who the top squad was no matter what qualifier the conference used.

The V8 squad dominated its race and was never threatened, taking the top time (6:32.64) over Brown (6:34.86) and Yale (6:35.85). With the win, the Tigers secured the top point total for all boats and the conference's NCAA automatic bid. The Tigers took home five gold medals.

It was the fourth straight Ivy League title for the Tigers and seventh in nine years in addition to the first team championship since it won three straight from 2011-13.

"Ivies last year was special because we had a nearly clean sweep of the regatta," stated Solms. "It was incredible to be in such an electric atmosphere and to see the hard work that every single person had put in pay off. Our theme last year was "A rising tide lifts all boats" and that race was the embodiment of that idea. It was incredible and the day ended with everyone throwing each other into the Cooper River in celebration."

The celebration at the end was a popular sentiment among the Class of 2020. "Tossing every coxswain, and then Lori, into the Cooper River after sweeping Ivies in 2019," mentioned Milligan about her favorite times with teammates.

"Every boat medaled and all, but one got first place," Love said when describing her favorite race during her career.

At the NCAA Championships, the program went out on a positive note, placing seventh overall in the team standings. The Tigers registered 94 points, nine points out sixth and 11 points out of fifth place. They surpassed their rank from the year prior and had the program's 21st top-ten finish.

Princeton's V8 team won the Petite Final (6:11.53) in impressive fashion by almost three seconds over Yale. At the 1,000m mark, the Tigers sat fifth, almost seven seconds behind the Bulldogs, but rallied to earn the seventh position overall among the V8 boats in the field. It was the fourth straight top-10 finish for the V8 unit.

For 2020, the Tigers were trying for its fifth straight Ivy title which would have given the program back-to-back senior classes with four Ivy crowns, but it was not meant to be.

That being said, the Class of 2020 was not tied together by what happened on the water. The group is held by its special connection together.

"Being in the locker room during normal practices, when someone breaks into dance," said Irwin when describing her favorite memories off the water. "After a long day, you can always count on someone to boogie and make you laugh and smile. I am going to miss those locker room moments of silliness."

Or maybe it was the bus rides back after Ivy League titles as Love described in her answer.

No matter what happened in the Spring of 2020, this class will be forever bonded together by its love for each other … and one other thing, of course.

Winning.