Men's Lightweight Rowing Dominates At Sprints; Claims Jope Cup

Sunday, May 14

Worchester, Mass.

Princeton University

Eastern Sprints

Lightweight Rowing Celebrates 2023 Sprints title

Photo by: Ed Hewitt, Row2K.com

Men's Lightweight Rowing Dominates At Sprints; Claims Jope Cup

May 14, 2023 | Men's Rowing - Lightweight

Results

It was a golden afternoon in terms of both the weather and the medal haul at Eastern Sprints for the Princeton men's lightweight rowing team as the Tigers won both the 1V and 2V eights on a sunny and picture-perfect day on Lake Quinsigamond. The double-gold performance is the eighth all-time for the Tigers, joining the 2003 and 2010 as recent crews which won both races.

The comprehensive effort from the crew was enough to return the Jope Cup for highest combined point total to the Tigers for the first time since 2010 and 16th time overall. If that wasn't enough fun, with the win in the 1V, the Tigers claim the Ivy League championship as the highest-finishing Ivy school at Sprints. This is the 13th Ivy League title for the men's lightweight rowing program.

"We figured the First Varsity race would be close between one or two crews but didn't want to overlook anybody. In the end it came down to executing the race plan we've been putting together all year and the guys nailed it," said head coach Martin Crotty. "To post back-to-back 5:35s even in fast tailwind conditions is really impressive. It set the bar for the field today and a couple boats got close but couldn't get ahead of that. It was also a great way for the 2V to cap off their undefeated regular season for the. I was thrilled for those guys, there is a lot of experience in that boat with four seniors and two other rowers from the original Class of 2023 and it showed all year."

For the Varsity boat, the win is their first since that 2010 showing, and 17th overall at Sprints. The 2V won its third-ever gold medal at Sprints and first since the 2010 group swept all three eights. It is the 10th medal overall for the 2V at Sprints, joining four silvers and three bronze medals since the event was first contested in 2003.

The Varsity Eight won its heat, navigating the course in a time of 5:35.538 which was over one second faster than Harvard which took second. In the afternoon's Grand Final, the Tigers were the class of the field from start to finish, winning gold in a course-record time of 5:35.420. While Princeton was in front throughout, they were compelled to hold off a charge from Harvard which closed over the final 750 and was runner-up 0.80 seconds behind.

For the Second Varsity, a comfortable morning heats session gave way to a frantic finish in the Grand Final as the Tigers staved off charging crews from Harvard and Cornell to secure the gold medal. After a 3.2-second win in the morning, the Tigers held on from Lane 1 in the Grand Final, crossing first in a time of 5:42.854 which was 0.590 ahead of the Crimson and 1.14 seconds in front of the Big Red.

The Third Varsity Eight was third in its heat, finishing in 5:51.884. That time was good enough to reach the Grand Final where the Tigers finished fifth in a time of 6:05.219.

The 4V raced in just the Grand Final, finishing fourth in a time of 6:07.575 in a race that was forced to restart after Dartmouth's crew had an equipment breakage issue within the allowed restart zone.