A Picture Worth A 1,000 Words And A National Championship

"We had the finish-line pictures of that race up in the locker room and often reminded each other of that margin, and it motivated us to really keep pushing for every extra bit of speed," said Ashton Brown '11 about the 2010 Eastern Sprints Finals.

Seventh tenths of a second.

That's what separated the 2010 V8 boat from an Ivy League title. The Tigers had an undefeated season but lost to Yale at the Eastern Sprints by that margin. Princeton went on to fall to Yale and Virginia at the NCAA Grand Final two weeks later.

Motivation for 2011 was not hard to come by.

The fall of 2010 started off with an impressive Head of the Charles victory. The Tigers finished the course in 15:48.314, more than 8.5 seconds faster than Virginia and nearly 10 seconds faster than any Ivy competitor in the Ivy League.

"I had no idea they could do that," uttered head coach Lori Dauphiny about the Head of the Charles win. "That race features Olympians all around the world and to do that was very impressive."

Training in the fall and winter heading into the 2011 campaign took on a different meaning for the boat that featured four seniors.

"Our training heading into the 2011 season felt different for me than in previous years, stated Lauren Wilkinson '11. "I was acutely aware that this was my last year at Princeton, my last year with the crew, and the last chance for the seniors on the team to win the grand final at NCAAs. Training with that knowledge added extra fire to my fall and winter practices."

The Tigers had the No. 2 national ranking in the preseason poll, but that barely registered in the boathouse.

"The experienced team that I joined had a great deal of history with many crews, and not a single race was viewed as 'easy,' declared Kelsey Reelick '14, a freshman on the V8 boat. "The ranking, essentially, meant nothing but that there was a target on our backs."

"Honestly, we never talked about rankings," remembered Molly Hamrick '13. "Rankings don't mean anything until you actually race and get results, and we knew that."

Princeton began 2011 with victories over two top-10 teams in No. 5 Brown and No. 8 Michigan State at Lake Carnegie. The Tigers easily disposed of Rutgers and Navy the next week.

The Tigers' next race featured an almost 10-second win over No. 13 Cornell and No. 18 Harvard. Cornell, the week prior, took down defending Ivy champion Yale.

Dauphiny's unit avenged its Eastern Sprints' loss to Yale with a three-second conquest on the road with Ohio State trailing behind.

Princeton was rolling with a No. 1 ranking.

"Lori was upfront with the team that a single performance did not guarantee a seat in the varsity boat," disclosed Wilkinson about Dauphiny's motivation for the team. "Speed during training sessions resulted in opportunities, and everyone on the team was hungry to be in a fast boat. That type of environment left little room for complacency during practices. Lori also never set the bar at 'just winning.' She challenged us. If we were ahead, how much further could we extend our margin? How early in a race could we get open water? Lori set high expectations for our team beyond merely winning, which helped to keep the momentum going."

The event at Dartmouth proved to be eventful to say the least.

The Connecticut River waters were predicted to be very rough, so Dartmouth, Penn and Princeton tried to complete the race on Friday. Only two races were able to be completed including a crash between Penn and Princeton during the varsity four race.

The Tigers swept the three NCAA format races, including a re-running of the varsity four, the next day.

"The weather was bad, our racing got pushed, but I recall the whole team being really good at rolling with the punches, and we had a lot of fun and swept the race," articulated Reelick.

The Tigers finished the regular season with a notable conquest over No. 5 Virginia, the defending national champion, as well as No. 19 Tennessee and Columbia. They crossed the finish line at 6:51.1, 12 seconds in front of the Cavaliers.

"Even though we went undefeated during the regular season, we never took that as a sign that we'd continue to do well in the next race," expressed Michaela Strand '11. "We didn't really dwell on how special or promising the season was until we were reflecting back on it at the very end. I think it helped to stay really focused on the task at hand and not get too caught up in a larger narrative."

"Do what you've been doing every day," described Dauphiny about the message to the team as the regular season ended. "We don't have to do anything super-human, it's the same thing we've been doing."

There was no upset for the Ivy League and Eastern Sprint titles in 2011.

The best boat won.

Princeton dropped the competition by over four seconds.

Part one of the postseason was complete.

"The post-Sprints celebration was much more memorable than the NCAA Championship, because our whole team swept the regatta, and that was really, really special," thought Hamrick. "After we won, we went to the medals dock and the whole team swarmed the dock to celebrate. We didn't know until that moment how well everyone else had done, too, and it was special to celebrate the culmination of all that hard work with the entire team. "

At the NCAA Championships, the V8 won its heat and finished second in the semifinal to advance to the Grand Final.

There was one more race left in the season.

"Before each race, Lori gave each boat a pre-race speech and then to close it out, she went to each woman, shook her hand, looked her straight in the eye and gave her one final piece of instruction," remembered Strand. "I'll never forget what a handshake from Lori Dauphiny feels like. You're filled with an overwhelming sense of not wanting to let her down. And because Lori never took it for granted that we were winning, neither did we."

"Before the (NCAA Grand Final) race, Lori shook my hand and said something like 'nobody else can do what you're about to,'" stated Lila Flavin '11. "She didn't throw around compliments and she was always careful with her words, so this really shook me! I thought, wow, she really believes in us right now."

The race itself was a back-and-forth affair. The Tigers led early, stretching their lead by over half a second over California, but the Golden Bears did not go away. California came back to take the lead, but Princeton pushed back in front with 500 meters to go.

No team caught the varsity eight after that. With a lead that went up to 1.5 seconds, the Tigers crossed the finish line in 6:27.12 to win the program's second NCAA Division I varsity eight championship.

"California was within a few seats of us," explained Flavin, the coxswain of the boat. "This felt like the moment. If they pulled ahead, I didn't think we could get it back. I asked for a push, and I just felt the whole boat respond. We held them off and then took a little more of a lead. That was it. After that moment I knew, we weren't going to let anyone take the lead from us."

It wasn't quite like the 2006 national championship for Dauphiny. There was a beach, so there was no need to jump in the water, but there were a lot of hugs.

"I don't know if anyone knew they could do it," stated the CRCA Hall of Fame coach. "They thought it was possible, but I don't know if anyone knew for sure. That was great determination."
The celebration for the four seniors in the boat took on a different meaning.

They had reached the pinnacle of their sport, but something even bigger loomed for them less than 24 hours later.

Graduation.

"We had a few hours to kill before the flight (home) and I remember feeling a bit dazed while we went and watched a movie," pronounced Brown. "It was fun to get back to Princeton and treat the graduation/reunions as a double celebration and spend a few days with my teammates."

"I remember we left our bags at baggage claim after a red-eye flight so that we could hear Brooke Shields give her address," revealed Strand. "I remember they announced our win as the four of us arrived and that was very special."

"I know that during my time on the Princeton crew, I was part of a group of women who actively worked to include new team members, celebrated improvements across the team, and consistently demonstrated that we had each other's backs," said Wilkinson. "I was part of a team that, over several years, put in the kilometers and sweat equity necessary to achieve our goal of winning NCAAs. We worked our way from eighth place to sixth place to third place, and finally to first place in 2011. I see our 2011 season as the result of a sustained charge, building over four years. I imagine that the team's current success has its foundation in the work of previous generations of Princeton rowers, much the same as for our team during the 2011 season."

Whether there was a culture shift or not following the 2011 title, no one is certain, but since then, it's hard to argue with the results of the program.

Princeton has produced seven Ivy League titles since 2011, a stretch unmatched in program history since it won seven in eight years between 1990-97.

A culture of winning.

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