Men's crew claims wins in season opener, women's crew fall to Brown and Harvard

After months of buildup, Princeton’s men's and women's crew teams finally had a chance to test their mettle on the water this weekend at the opening of the dual meet season. Both the heavy- and lightweight men’s teams were victorious against strong opponents whom they were nevertheless expected to beat, while each of the women’s teams fell to some of the toughest competition they will face all year.

On Lake Carnegie, the third-ranked heavyweight men’s squad faced a Georgetown team against whom they had found plenty of success in the past. True to form, the Tigers soundly beat the Hoyas, winning by 21 seconds in the first varsity boat on the breezy, but otherwise nice, Saturday afternoon. Underscoring the victory in the first slot, Princeton also triumphed in the the second, third and fourth boats, showing not only their speed at the top, but also the depth of the team. Heading into an arguably more challenging test in the Princeton-Navy Rowing Cup next weekend, Princeton will be glad to have taken care of business against the Hoyas.

Down in Annapolis, the men’s lightweight team squared off against Navy on Saturday for the Joseph Murtaugh Cup, which the Tigers have held for seven successive years. This year’s team didn’t let down their predecessors, pulling out a six-second victory to retain the cup for the eighth straight year. The following day, the team headed to nearby Washington, D.C., to face Georgetown for the Fosburgh Cup, another competition which the Tiger lightweights have dominated in the past. This time, they won in an even more convincing fashion, with Princeton outpacing the Hoyas by almost 15 seconds and scoring victories in second, third and fourth varsity as well.

Back in Princeton, the openweight women faced perhaps their biggest test of the season against third-ranked Brown, last year’s Ivy League champion, and Ohio State. Despite suffering a three-second loss to the Bears and falling to the Buckeyes by just a fraction of a second for a third-place finish in the first varsity race, the Tigers showed they could be competitive against two of the top teams in the nation. Princeton knew going in that beating Brown would be a tall task and will be disappointed not to win, but can take solace in the fact that they shaved five seconds off of Brown’s margin of victory from last year’s version of this race. The Tigers will feel like they have a chance of overcoming the Bears when they face them in championship races at the end of the year.

Finally, the lightweight women’s team failed to replicate last seasons victory over Harvard on Saturday on Lake Carnegie, coming up short by 17 seconds in the battle for the 1999 Cup. One of just three teams to outpace Princeton at the IRA championships last season, Harvard put on an impressively dominant performance to reclaim the cup and assert its status as the fastest boat in the Ivies. With another stiff challenge coming at the San Diego Crew Classic next weekend, where the women will face, among others, Stanford, last year's IRA champion, Princeton will need to rebound from this disappointment and focus on rectifying the loss when they face Harvard at the end of the season.