Tradition to continue as w. crew begins spring season

As the mercury rises and Lake Carnegie returns to liquid form, both women's crew teams are setting out to prove themselves as top Ivy League and even national competitors.

If history tells us anything, we can count on the open and lightweight teams to continue a strong Princeton tradition in the sport.

Open women's crew at Princeton dates back to 1972, when it was introduced as one of the original women's sports on campus. Since then, four Tiger boats have finished first at the NCAA Championships, all in the past 13 years. The teams have not brought home the national title since 1995, however.

This year's open group faces a tough schedule. Princeton will compete against its top three Ivy League threats — Brown, Yale, and Radcliffe — during the first four weekends of the season, and they will race every Saturday from March 29 to May 3.

Two big tournaments in May will decide both open league and national champion. At the Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges Eastern Sprints on May 18, the Tigers will vie for the EAWRC title. May 29 to June 1, they travel to Indianapolis, Ind. for the NCAA Championships.

The lightweight women have won an equal number of national titles as their open counterparts, with one major difference: their history dates back only to the 1998 season. Since that first season, in which they placed third at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) Championships — the lightweight national race — they have dominated their competition and have won four straight national titles.

The lightweights have hard work ahead of them if they want to repeat as IRA champions. This weekend and again on April 19 they race against Radcliffe, who finished first among collegiate teams at the Head of the Charles Regatta in October, where Princeton finished second. Wisconsin also poses a threat in the Tigers' quest for a fifth straight national title.

Both women's teams have lived up to the rowers' reputations as some of the most diligent athletes on campus. Lightweight and open crew made the best of a particularly harsh winter — they worked to improve strength and endurance. Just in the past two weeks, relief from freezing temperatures allowed them to return to Lake Carnegie for practice on the water.

"Winter is all about getting on the ergs [stationary rowing machines] and pounding it out," lightweight senior captain Laurie Dean said.

"I have not seen ice like we had on the lake this year since 1994," open coach Lori Dauphiny said. "Rowing on the erg is just not the same as rowing in a boat."

In addition to the long winter, the Tigers also had to deal with the new moratorium, which prevented them from practicing as a team for five weeks over the course of the year.

"The rule was exceptionally hard for the freshmen," Dauphiny said. "For many, it was difficult [to train] without guidance."

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Both teams look forward to the weekend as a chance to see how they measure up to this year's competition this year.

This Saturday the open women host Brown and Michigan on Lake Carnegie. Both Brown, who finished second in the nation last year, and Michigan have the potential to do some damage against the Tigers.

Racing in the top varsity boat this weekend are senior captain Sasha Suda, seniors Lia Pernell, Sallie Langston, and Christy Laakman, juniors Kim Taggart and Hannah England, and freshmen Kate Bertko and Caroline Lind. Senior Celeste Powell fills the crucial role of coxswain.

The lightweight women travel to California this weekend to race against Radcliffe, California-Davis and Stanford in the Redwood Shores Regatta. With three rowers returning in the top varsity boat, Princeton hopes to show these teams what they can do.

Senior Jen Carter serves as coxswain for the top boat, which includes Dean, sophomores Julia Straus, Sarah Skinner, Allison Barnes, and Lillian Tomaskovic, seniors Melissa Renny and Eileen Crawford, and junior Amelia Robertson.

The lightweight women have two season goals — to "always perform at the level representative of our abilities and to repeat as IRA champions," lightweight coach Heather Smith said.

Smith's open counterpart put her team's goal much more succinctly: they simply want "to go as fast as we can."