Wisconsin beats women's lightweights in third renewal of rivalry this season

Half a second. Not a whole lot of time. About the time it would take to hit your lightswitch and jump into bed, trying to hit the sack before the light went off. Maybe a little longer than that. But really, what could possibly happen in half a second? Nothing important, right?

Wrong. For the women's lighweight crew, half a second separated them from Wisconsin in the EARC Sprints yesterday. Half a second, as hard as it is to believe, separated the Tigers from their fourth consecutive sprints victory. Half a second, as hard as it is to stomach, erased a season's worth of hard work, including two victories over that same Wisconsin boat, and left the Tigers with little more than disappointment to keep them company on their bus ride back to Princeton last night.

The Tigers have raced Wisconsin four times this season. Cumulatively, those four races were decided by less than a second. The Tigers still have the edge, if you think cumulatively. — by four tenths of a second. Today, though, and until next year's Eastern Sprints, the only tenths that really matter are the five that the Badgers somehow managed to gain on the Tigers.

After four races as close as the races between Wisconsin and Princeton have been this season, it seems almost unfair for one team to come out on top. Unfortunately, that is the way it goes. Sports, as just about every athlete discovers at one point or another, are not fair. All else being equal, the team with the most talent usually wins. The team that works hardest usually gets rewarded. But when you take two teams like Princeton and Wisconsin, both talented, both disciplined, and you throw them out on the water, the difference at the end does not tell you a whole lot. If they raced a thousand times, it would still probably be hard to tell which was the better team. All you can really ever determine is the team of the moment. Destiny's favorite.

The Tigers have little time to lament whatever mistakes they might have made on the racecourse today. Two weeks from now, the Tigers will be racing in the IRA's against the nation's best. And, of course, Wisconsin. If the Tigers can manage to be on the right side of half a second on that day, today's loss, and everything else, will fade away. And all that will be left is a barely measurable unit of time. And a trophy.