Two crew teams open year on West Coast, two on East

After training in a blizzard over Spring Break and stroking through ice in their slides, Princeton's crew teams are definitely ready for spring and all the tough competition it can serve up. Their wish is not far from being granted as all teams will compete in their first races this Saturday.

The women's lightweight crew is still on a high from their performance last May when they edged out No. 2 Radcliffe to win the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships. While the women's openweight crew did not fare as well in the finals last season (they finished 7th in overall team standings at NCAAs), they are still setting their sights high for this spring.

The women's varsity openweight crew graduated eight seniors last year, but that does not seem to have unsettled head coach Lori Dauphiny.

"We have a young team this year," Dauphiny said. "At this point it is hard to say what kind of speed we will have early in the season. However it looks like a solid group."

As for the rest of the season, Dauphiny names Brown and Ohio State as some of the toughest competition the Tigers will face.

The women's varsity lightweights head to California this weekend to strengthen their legs against Radcliffe, Georgetown, and Stanford. Looking forward to this competition is head coach Heather Smith.

"It is an exciting weekend because we get to go up against three other crews in one trip," Smith said. "Based on the fall races I expect Radcliffe to be fast this spring. But we never want to count anyone out."

Men to follow

The men's varsity heavyweights will be following the women out to sunny California to compete in the Windermere Classic this Friday. Like the women, they have a relatively young team, but head coach Curtis Jordan is confident their skill overshadows any concerns about age.

"We're fairly young, but this is not a limitation because all our rowers are so talented," Jordan said.

The men's varsity lightweights will compete against Navy this Saturday. Head coach Joe Murtaugh is looking to this race as an indicator about the rest of the season.

"Navy has a particularly strong and deep team this year," Murtaugh said. "This weekend should give all of our crews, varsity through freshmen, a strong indication of where we stand and what we need to do to improve."

As for the rest of the season Murtaugh expects great results from his team, which returns five rowers and a coxswain from last spring's Eastern Championships winning varsity boat. Murtaugh also has Eastern Sprints and a national title in his sights.