Crew teams put reputations on line as world gathers for Zurich Cup

Some animals, like the koala bear, are cute. Some, like the fox, are clever. Some, like the tiger, command respect. And then there are those animals, like the badger, which fall a bit short and reside somewhere in the grayish limbo of the animal hierarchy.

As one would expect, millennia of life in limbo have given the badger a bit of a complex. More importantly, centuries of being stuck in the middle have made the badger tough, a scrapper.

Now, no one would say that the Wisconsin Badgers women's lightweight crew is without natural gifts. A group of talented and experienced rowers, they are not bound by the limitations of their furry counterparts. That said, the mascot is still appropriate. Like a lawyer badgering a witness, or, to use a more appropriate simile, like a badger badgering a tiger, the Wisconsin lightweights have been a thorn in the Princeton women's lightweight crew's side for the past two seasons, pushing the Tigers to the limits of their capability and endurance and beating them once each year.

This Saturday, at the Zurich World Cup at Mercer Park in Princeton, the Tigers will get a chance to top the Badgers, who clipped them at the San Diego Crew Classic earlier this year. But it won't be easy. Wisconsin, currently ranked first in the nation, is coming into this weekend's race with the confidence that it has what it takes to beat Princeton.

And given the nature of this weekend's event, it is not likely that the Badgers will come out flat. This Saturday's regatta is different than from other in American history. In the morning, the Tiger women lightweights will be joined by their openweight counterparts who will race against Dartmouth and Penn, and their male lightweight counterparts, who will race against Yale and Harvard.

A few hours later, the best rowers in the world, representing 40 different countries, will compete in the first Rowing World Cup ever held on American soil. The latest predictions have the US team competing against teams from Great Britain, Canada, Germany, and Australia for the title, which goes to the country that accumulates the most points in each of 14 Olympic boat classes.

So, with hundreds of the best rowers in the world watching, not to mention the throngs of fans likely to show up for one of the marquee rowing events in the world, the Tigers, from the lightweight men to the openweight women to the lightweight women, will be hard pressed to live up to their company.

Despite the excitement of the world championships that will go on in the afternoon, the Tigers know that they are heading to Mercer Lake for business.

"We know that to win this weekend we will have to row at our absolute best," junior lightweight stroke Linda Loyd said. "Wisconsin will be sharp off the start and throughout the body of the piece. Its going to be a battle. But after a week of hard work, and with the Eastern Sprints and IRA's coming up, we're looking to make a statement."

The race for the women's openweights, undefeated since their season-opening loss to Brown, does not have quite the symbolic importance of the lightweights' rematch against Wisconsin, but it will be a chance to make an important statement.

"We want to have a good race because Brown is racing on the same course 20 minutes before us," sophomore stroke Lia Pernell said. "It will be a good opportunity to compare times and see where we are."

The men's lightweight crew has also been on a tear since an earlyseason loss to Georgetown, leaving a series of Ivy League victims in its wake. This weekend's race against perennial rivals Harvard and Yale is a great opportunity to show how far it has come.

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All in all, this weekend should offer plenty of excitement. America's best rowers, the world's best rowers, a chance for the lightweight women to gain revenge and erase the lingering taste of defeat to the always annoying Badgers, and a chance for the openweight women and lightweight men to build even more momentum as the season kicks into high gear.