This weekend three Princeton crews raced against a total of five teams in three states.
The heavyweight men's team swept its races at Penn in the Childs Cup. Though Columbia turned out not to provide much competition, Penn drove the Tigers to the edge of failure in more than one race.
"Penn always gives us a run for our money," men's heavyweight head coach Curtis Jordan said. "We always expect that kind of race against Penn. They are the best crew we have raced this year."
With a major race coming up next week against Harvard, the confidence from the Penn triumphs should carry over to these races.
"Our biggest challenge will be this weekend," Jordan said. "Harvard is number one on the east coast right now and a win would be huge."
Unlike most of the competitions thus far this season, it was not a weekend saturated with Tiger victories. Only the second varsity boat on the lightweight men's team was able to overcome Navy, who soundly defeated all the other Princeton boats on Saturday on Lake Carnegie.
"It's no secret that they thumped us pretty well," lightweight men's head coach Joe Murtaugh said. "They beat us in the national championships last year and returned a strong core from that group."
Navy pulled away from the start and never looked back, leaving Princeton to eat the Midshipmen's bubbles.
"We had to have our best race to beat them," Murtaugh said. "They left us pretty far behind pretty early. This week we'll be working on trying not to get left at the start like that."
In a firm tailwind, Navy's first varsity posted a time of 5:42.4, nearly seven full seconds ahead of Princeton's time.
What does the first loss of the season mean to the Tigers, as they try to make a run to the national championships?
"[This race] was a little bit of a marker. We certainly know Navy is a fast crew," Murtaugh said. "That is a very, very fast time for a lightweight boat."
The open women's crew team was only slightly more successful than the lightweight men. They did win the first varsity eight race, as well as the second novice race, but failed in every other competition on the Charles River in Boston, which was spirited this weekend. It carried a strong quartering headwind and choppy water that elevated to white caps during the first varsity eight and varsity four races.
The Tigers' two competitors, Cornell and Radcliffe, both notched wins as well, but the big victory in the first varsity eight race went to Princeton, who recorded a time of 7:36.6, nine seconds ahead of second place Radcliffe, who squeezed past Cornell by a second.
"[This race] was a boost for the first varsity," Dauphiny said. "It definitely shows improvement; it shows we are gaining speed and getting better as a boat.
"The [second varsity] had a tough race. The tough conditions played a role in their demise. The first novice had a great fight. They were within feet [of Radcliffe] most of the race, and even led for a while. They showed tremendous poise for a freshman team, but they were beat out in the last 40 strokes."
After the weekend, the experienced coach was unwilling to put too much emphasis on these early races.
"We have one race down," Dauphiny said, "but lots still to go."
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