News and Notes

The Department of Athletics recently announced that Erin McDermott has been named to the newly created three-year position of Assistant Director of Athletics at Princeton. As a student at Hofstra, McDermott captained the women's basketball team before turning to athletic administration. After working for one year at the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators, McDermott went to Columbia to serve as assistant director of compliance. At Princeton, McDermott will focus on programming and compliance issues.

After losing in preliminary competition, the Princeton-heavy U.S. men's eight rowing team faced Romania and Canada in the Olympic repechage yesterday in Penrith, Australia, with a spot in the event finals on the line.

It looked as if both Romania and the world champion U.S. boat crossed the finish line simultaneously, but a look at the photo finish gave the U.S. team a victory — by only two hundredths of a second.

Coached by Mike Teti and stroked by former Tiger standout Chris Ahrens '98, the boat finished the course in 5 minutes, 43.22 seconds, earning the bid to the finals over Romania (5:43.24) by the narrowest of margins. In the No. 4 seat for the U.S. team was another Princetonian, Tom Welsh '99. The U.S. boat will compete in the finals Saturday.

Competing in the same race for the Canadian side were Morgan Crooks '98 in the No. 6 seat and senior Tom Herschmiller in the No. 4.

As a member of the women's eight, Lianne Bennion '95 will be in the event finals as well. The victorious U.S. women's team topped Canada by 0.4 seconds.

In addition to current and former members of the Princeton crew teams, Tiger swimming is also making a splash in Sydney.

Swimming for his native Peru, freshman Juan Pablo Valdivieso finished 36th in the 200-meter butterfly earlier in the week. And helping out the U.S. women's swimming team as an assistant coach at the Olympics is Princeton women's swimming head coach Susan Teeter.