Dominant: The Story of the 2006 Open Rowing V8 National Championship

Greatness is a word that is often overused.

How does anything become great?

Where does greatness start?

Princeton has had 207 national championships, including a 43-year streak of having at least one team or individual national champion between 1972-2014.

The 2006 open rowing V8 was one of those teams.

They obliterated the competition. They won every race by a lot. In fact, the closest competition was a 6.41-second victory in the NCAA Grand Final over California.

Greatness is definitely appropriate to describe this boat.

How did this boat become so great? Well, it had an Olympian and three eventual Olympians on it.

Even more unique about the boat? The captain of the team … a former walk on Devan (Darby) Bartels '06.

Getting to the all-time great heights that this boat achieved wasn't easy.

In 2004, the Tigers went 11-1, won the Ivy and Eastern Sprints titles, but finished fourth in the NCAA Grand Final behind Brown, Yale and Michigan.

The next season, despite the V8 boat going through injuries, Princeton went undefeated in the regular season but placed second at Eastern Sprints and in the NCAA Grand Final.

"We weren't satisfied with our 2005 finish," said Gevvie Stone '07. "We came very close to winning NCAA, and we fell short at the end of the race. The first practice of the year in the fall of 2006, we had almost finished rowing and had stopped just downstream of the stone bridge. Lori (Dauphiny) sat in her launch to tell us a story ... "Last year, there was a crew that came off the course at NCAAs looking like this." She demonstrated a pouty face and stance. "This year, I want the same crew to look like this!" She threw her hands in the air, gave a whoop, and jumped off her launch into Carnegie! She was talking about us."

Eight of the nine members of the 2005 NCAA boat returned with one big addition.

Andreanne Morin '06.

Why was she not at Princeton?

She was training and then participating in the Olympics. Morin was on the Canadian National Team and placed seventh in the 2004 Athens Olympics 8+ event.

"Re-integrating the Princeton team after my leave of absence, it was a breath of fresh air to be part of a team where everyone was cheering for everyone," mentioned Morin." The camaraderie, support and encouragement were genuine and ran deep in the team. "

The expectations for the team going into the season were sky high. They were picked as the preseason No. 1 team in the country.

"I never let them think they were good enough, to be honest," revealed head coach Lori Dauphiny.

"When looking at the rankings, it shows how many coaches voted for you," specified Stone. "That first ranking—and many that followed—had all but one coach voting for Princeton as the No. 1 seed. Our boat knew the one coach who wasn't voting for us was Lori. She wouldn't vote for us until we developed into the boat, she knew we had the potential to be. We weren't happy knowing that she didn't yet have that confidence in us, and we set out every practice and every race to prove we deserved that confidence."

The season opened with a 9.3-second victory over Brown while Michigan was over 20 seconds behind. Both those squads were instead the top 10.

A week later, the Tigers earned a 22.4-second decision over Columbia with Georgetown and Rutgers off the pace.

The following week, the Tigers took down two Ivy opponents, Radcliffe and Cornell by almost 12 seconds.

The Tigers were cruising, and they never let up.

"Every row was challenging," recalled Katie Bertko '06. "There was an immense amount of pressure for execution at a very high level and the daily practice of managing that environment prepared us for racing."

"This boat never settled," exclaimed Lizzie Agnew '08. "Everyone in that boat was motivated by Lori, but also self-motivated, focused, and mature."

The No. 1 boat in the country avenged its 2005 Eastern Sprints loss to Yale with an impressive 9.1-second triumph at Lake Carnegie. Virginia, No. 11 in the country, was 17 seconds off the mark.

"The season opener against Brown and then the races against Yale/UVA were keystone races in my mind," stated Bartels. "Beating Brown set the tone and the outcome of the Yale/UVA race was also confirmation that that year was going to be great."

Princeton aced its first true "road" competition with 19.1-second victory over Dartmouth and Penn on the Schuylkill River.

Dauphiny's squad had one more regular season contest before the real tests began. The day-to-day grind at the boathouse for any team, much less the best in country, could lead to a slip up.

Not with this unit.

Every Wednesday was Speed Order Day. The teams at the boathouse would match up boats that had similar speed. Sometimes, the varsity eight would race the men's heavyweight's fours or the men's lightweight squad.

"I remember that we would often race against the men's teams with staggered starts," uttered Caroline Lind '06. "I thought this was really fun and a great way to recreate different race situations and add a lot of camaraderie with the other teams, which I think is really special about the Princeton set up."

"I remember semi-dreading Wednesdays because I knew how much it would burn," disclosed Bartels. "I think this was great as it gave us tougher competition and forced us to practice racing from behind."

One of Stone's favorite races all year wasn't against an Ivy League or West Coast school.

It was a Speed Order Wednesday.

"It was mid-season, and we had been told we could start in the second flight. There wasn't a lane for us because only four lanes have buoy lines on Carnegie, so we were put in Lane 0 against the shore. We were out for blood, to prove we weren't just fast women but simply fast. We won the piece, crossing the line first in front of the men's boats. They immediately starting protesting—our lane was protected from the wind, etc. There was no mention of the disadvantage caused by our lane being close to the land with shallower water, which is slower. We weren't allowed to race the men ever again. It was worth it. It was probably the toughest, feistiest, well-rowed piece we raced all spring."

Princeton finished the regular season just like the other races.

Dominance.

The V8 won by 22 seconds over Tennessee with Massachusetts and George Washington following.

It was the program's first ever 14-win season.

"I felt incredibly proud, and I think my teammates felt the same way," verbalized Lind. "We all choose Princeton for a reason, and it was so great to be able to represent the school by setting those program records and bringing home victories."

"It was the culmination of a brilliant season," expressed Morin. "The majority of the women in that crew were seniors so it was also our last swan song together, as one, on the NCAA circuit. Several of us would meet again on the WC circuit for US and Canada, but at the time, we didn't know that."

The 2005 Eastern Sprints Grand Final was a heartbreaking loss for the V8 boat. In 2006, the Tigers left no doubt. Princeton won by almost eight seconds while the defending champion Yale trailed by 11 seconds.

There was a two-week layoff between the Sprints and NCAA Championships.

There was still work to do. That was the message that Dauphiny kept preaching during that stretch. She was also not afraid to call out the boat when needed.

"I remember one practice in particular: it was during the spring season, and Lori could tell that we were 'phoning it in' during practice," said Kristin Haraldsdottir '08. "During the middle of our practice, she stopped her launch and stopped coaching us for a while. To us, that was one of the greatest negative consequences she could have served us - if we didn't give her our best, she wouldn't give us hers. And that's just how it was, a mutual respect between athletes and her. It worked because we trusted each other so completely."

"The seniors in that boat really kept everyone on track. There was a very high standard of performance that started with Lori and trickled down to each person in the boat," mentioned Caroline Kruse '07. "There was a lot of love on the crew. Not everyone was best friends, but there was a level of respect and realizing all of our success was intertwined, and that bond got stronger as the season progressed."

Maintaining focus all year was vital to the success of the team. It was a reflection on its captain, Bartels, who was the leader among the current Olympians, soon-to-be Olympians and eventual Olympians.

"Devan was an inspiration to us all," voiced Berko, who eventually made the 2016 Rio Olympics in the double. "She brought us together with humility, enthusiasm and humor."

"Devan is an amazing person and was a perfect captain," professed Kruse. "Not only was she extremely talented and smart, but I think by virtue of her being a walk-on, she was able to be down to earth about that season. It was like she did not have anything to prove, which of course, is not true because we were all proving we should be in the that varsity boat every day for the whole year, but she did not express any ego about her own abilities. She was a positive force holding the boat together. "

"Honestly, that 2006 women's crew was full of leaders," said Bartels. "Everyone was dedicated and a superb athlete. There was a lot of positivity. That made my role easy. I think I tried to celebrate the day-to-day 'wins' and support the crew members who'd stumbled as best as I could. Ultimately, I think we all respected each other and left it out on the water as best we could."

The Tigers easily won their heat at the NCAA Championships by more than four seconds and then followed that by a five-second win in semifinals to advance to the grand final.

It wasn't perfect during the semifinal. One of the rowers lost control of their oar, known as catching a crab in the rowing world. The boat rebounded, but it was dangerously close to a disaster.

"The day of the Grand Final, there was sense of calmness and they looked ready," said Dauphiny, describing the vibe of the team before she pushed them off the dock.

The boat jumped out immediately and held a six-seat lead within over Brown. By the time, there was 500-meters left, the Tigers had a full-length lead on the competition.

"I rarely remember anything from races themselves because of the adrenaline, but I do remember that everyone in the boat could not take another stroke after the end of that race," avowed Agnew. "It didn't matter how far ahead we were, there was no letting up."

"I remember looking over at the Cal boat at the starting line," acknowledged Darby. "We hadn't raced against them for a year, when they'd beat us in 2005. I so badly wanted to beat them. Then I remember the last 500 meters just thinking, "hold on, is this real? And don't catch a crab!"

Unlike the semifinal, they didn't catch a crab.

They won the V8 national championship.

"It had been an incredibly intense, stressful year," explained Haraldsdottir. "My mom flew out for the NCAA Championship, and I remember looking for her in the crowd on the shore after the race. Once I got to shore, I looked for her, and for the first time in a long time, felt such relief, knowing that I had accomplished my goal, and just gave her a huge hug."

"I remember pulling up to the shore and seeing my parents and giving everyone big wet, sweaty, teary hugs," stated Kruse. "After that, I literally remember nothing."

"I took in every moment," mentioned Dauphiny. "I loved that team and cherished everything about that day, including jumping into the water pregnant!"

"It was special to win an NCAAs close to campus—only a 15-minute drive away—because friends came to watch, and we had a huge cheering section," said Stone. "The amount of support shown by Tiger friends was incredible."

It's hard to forget a team like the 2006 V8 boat.

Morin would go on two more Olympics, highlighted by a silver medal in the 8+ medal in the 2012 Olympics.

The gold medalist that day? Her Princeton boatmate, Caroline Lind. It was Lind's second consecutive gold medal. Stone, in her second Olympic Games, secured the silver medal 1X event in 2016. Bertko was 10th in the 2X event in 2016.

Greatness, not just at Princeton, but on the international stage as well.

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