M., w. crew dominate at Princeton Chase

"You'll turn left at this little boathouse," a campus guide directs first time visitors. Driving over the Washington Road Bridge, however, the quaint mental image one so naively paints is shattered upon first glimpse of the majestic structure perched royally on the banks of Lake Carnegie. Looming against an austere woodland backdrop, this insolently proud edifice, Saratoga's version of an opulent Roman villa, inspires an immediate sense of awe in onlookers for the tall and slender, extravagantly careless athletocrats that must hold court in such a storied domain.

That same feeling of awe was contagious a few Sundays ago when over twenty crews gathered to compete in Princeton's only home race of the fall, the Princeton Chase.

"If your boathouse is any indication of your crew teams' ability, then God help us," sophomore coxswain Douglas Melchor of the University of Virginia said as he helped unload his team's boats.

God, however, had no intention of helping any enemy teams that had so arrogantly come to race on the waters of the Tigers' Nile. Both men's heavyweight and women's open weight won convincing first places in both the eight and four boats, with men's lightweight eights taking first and lightweight fours taking second.

While this race is typically one of the more low-key events on the Tigers' fall schedule, it was not just another year at the Chase for men's heavyweight. More than anything else, this was a chance to take back home turf bragging rights.

"Our main goal this year was to face up to Cornell," sophomore heavyweight Steve Coppola said. "Last year they beat us on our own course. It was a shock."

Cornell was definitely still in the fight, finishing only a few seconds behind the men's heavyweight four, but all that mattered to the Tigers was regaining the face that they had lost the year before.

"Last year we expected to do better than we actually ended up doing," sophomore heavyweight Mike Gottlieb said. "Cornell was the next best school there — we lost to them and we didn't want that to happen again."

But while the fours boat was quite a close race, the men's heavyweight eights finished over 20 seconds ahead of their closest competitor. In Macarthur-esque fashion, Princeton took back their proverbial Philippines, proving indeed that they "had returned."

"This was to reinstate Princeton in a top position and show that we'll be out there to win this year," Gottlieb said.

In addition to a bit of vengeance, the Tigers also had a chance to test some of their more novice rowers at this convenient home event.

Men's heavyweight and women's open each raced five boats in the fours, with men's heavyweight racing four boats in the eights and women's open racing three boats in the eights.

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"This is definitely an all encompassing team event," senior men's heavyweight captain Tyson White said. "Everyone gets two races — there's no other event like that for us. It's an opportunity for people to go out and demonstrate what they've done over the summer and to really prove themselves."

With the fall season wrapping up, the Chase was a great way for both the men's and women's crews to get a feel for how strongly they tilt the metaphorical scale of skill. Successes at both the Princeton Chase as well as the earlier Head of the Charles Regatta have left the crew teams feeling cautiously confident heading into their much more important spring seasons.

"This race was a mental boost for us and was something that has built up a lot of confidence for the team going into winter training," White said. "It's a big boost for team morale."

Now, as the cold months of winter training set in, Princeton crew fans can only wait and see whether time and aging will help the Tigers' crew programs gain strength and gusto like a fine sauvignon blanc or simply sour like a poorly bottled zinfandel.

Regardless of the spring season, however, one thing is quite clear: Princeton is back in the running to be the best of the best.

"We went out this fall coming off a bad season last year," White said. "We needed to show that we had the ability to regain Princeton's standing as one of the top teams in the nation and I think we really did accomplish that. There's no question that the Tigers will be fast this year."