The 2003 spring crew season is about to hit full gear for the Princeton men's varsity teams. Both the heavyweights and lightweights have already had some tough races and clutch victories to start the season on promising notes. But with competition against traditional Ivy League rivals about to start, it is time for both teams to kick into high gear.
The heavyweights started the season with a trip to the West Coast to race in the Windmere Collegiate Crew Classic. The highlight of the trip was a thrilling comeback victory over a tough crew from Navy.
Later in the trip, the team suffered disappointing losses to Cal-Berkeley and Wisconsin, last year's national champions and runners-up, respectively.
The team then bounced back last weekend with a very successful trip to the Raritan River in New Brunswick, NJ. Racing against crews from Rutgers, Princeton went undefeated on the weekend, sweeping every race.
To build on last weekend's success, Princeton will have to bring its best race to Lake Carnegie this weekend. The Tigers will host crews from Penn and Columbia on Saturday in competition for the Child's Cup, the trophy which goes to the regatta's overall winner every year. In 2002, on Penn's home course, Princeton swept all four races to capture the Cup easily.
The Tigers will look to duplicate last year's success on Saturday. Penn also competed in the Windmere Classic to start its season, defeating Stanford but losing to Navy, whom Princeton had already beaten. However, Navy's margin of victory in that race was a mere .4 seconds, so the Quakers are not a crew the Tigers can take lightly.
Columbia's crew, meanwhile, also raced Rutgers on the Raritan River earlier this season. The Lions' varsity lost that race to the Scarlet Knights by a little over eleven seconds. Princeton defeated that same Rutgers crew last weekend by four seconds. However, that race came very early in Columbia's season, and the Tigers must be wary of a big improvement in the Lions' game.
Princeton will have the advantage of the home course this weekend as well as the psychological advantage of having swept the races at Penn last year. The Tigers should nonetheless keep up the intensity against its Ivy League rivals, as both programs consistently produce dangerous crews. The races will run all day Saturday on Lake Carnegie, with the varsity race the last of the day.
While the heavyweights have the luxury of coming into the weekend off a victory and racing at home in Princeton, the lightweights cannot claim either of these advantages. Last weekend, the varsity suffered a tough loss at the hands of Georgetown on Lake Carnegie. The Tigers swept every race against the Hoyas except the premier event, the first varsity race. The previous weekend, Princeton opened its season with a sweep of Navy and Columbia, winning all races on Lake Carnegie.
Now the Tigers must travel to Ithaca, New York to battle crews from Rutgers and Cornell for possession of the Platt Cup. Cornell comes off a weekend in which the Big Red defeated Penn but lost by three seconds to Harvard, while the Scarlet Knights come off a two and a half second loss to Columbia, one of Princeton's victims earlier in the season. Both crews will be looking to put a hurting on Princeton's season with a victory in Ithaca.
Princeton must row a good race if it hopes to leave Ithaca victorious. Both Rutgers and Cornell have already proven they can race with the country's top crews.
Last spring, the Tigers took home the Platt Cup with a sweeping victory, winning all four races on Lake Carnegie. However, this year the Tigers must travel to Cornell's home course, giving the Big Red a slight familiarity advantage.
The Tigers must prove they can bounce back after last weekend's Georgetown disappointment and put all their intensity and focus into winning this weekend's race.
With just five weeks left until Eastern Sprints and seven weeks until the National Championships, the next few weeks will determine whether the heavyweights and lightweights have championship crews in the 2003 season.
Both teams have lofty goals, but the question remains whether either crew has the will to win and killer instinct necessary for a champion. This weekend will be a big step towards finding out.
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