This weekend, the women's crew teams wrapped up their respective Ivy League seasons, in the same manner as the cast of Friends — with a bit of drama. For the many fans that made the short trip to Camden, N.J., to watch the Tigers compete in Eastern Sprints, it was well worth the drive. The women's open varsity eight was able to reclaim the Ivy League title from Radcliffe in thrilling fashion.
Although Princeton finished the race with a relatively fast time of 6 minutes, 16.10 seconds the Crimson (6:17.10) finished a mere one second behind. The race was so close that referees would have to turn to instant replay before they could crown the Tigers as the new champions.
Afterwards, a Tiger-filled crowd would drown out the voices of the referees with a barrage of cheers directed at their first-place team.
"It was so intense," sophomore Kristin McMenamin said about the photo finish.
For the Tigers, the win was a rare feat, as they came in to Sprints as the No. 1 team and finished the same. It also will go down in history as Princeton's eighth Ivy League title, and its first in the last seven years.
"It's amazing," McMenamin said. "Our team is just elated. It's a great experience."
For the entire team, Sprints were quite successful. Every open weight boat, except for the varsity four, medaled.
In the second varsity eight race, the Tigers (6:39.33) brought home the bronze, finishing behind first-place Brown (6:31.02) and second-place Yale (6:35.53).
Where the varsity eight left off, the novice boat picked up – recording a four second victory (6:33.75) over Cornell (6:37.62).
The second novice boat also medaled as it finished in second with a time of 6:59.08, 10 seconds behind Brown (6:48.99).
"I'm so proud of our team," McMenamin said. "We had a really strong showing across the board."
Indeed they did. The women's lightweight novice eight and varsity four both recorded victories. The freshman boat (7:04.40) finished a comfortable 10 seconds in front of Wisconsin (7:14.99). Similarly, the Tigers varsity four (7:36.40) finished two seconds ahead of the Badgers (7:38.90).
In the lightweight varsity eight race, Princeton (6:42.10) placed third. The Crimson (6:38.60) grabbed gold and Wisconsin (6:41.47) sacked silver.
With the Easterns' title under their belt, a hungry Tiger team will head out West to compete for the coveted title of national champion.
"It was a big morale boost," McMenamin said of the win at Easterns. "It has really focused us and centered us to work hard to pick up more speed before heading to [Nationals]."
When Princeton heads out to Sacramento, Calif. over Memorial Day weekend for Nationals, it will face a big challenge — rowing against mostly unfamiliar teams. Though, after this weekend's performance, a national championship would not be out of the question.
While the women were busy bringing home gold, the men were hard at work training for Eastern Sprints this coming weekend in Worcester, Mass.
Fresh off a sound victory over Brown, the Tiger heavyweights will look to continue their success. Last year, Princeton had a postseason they would love to forget, performing poorly when it mattered most.
This year, the Tigers have trained hard in the hopes of making amends for last year's disappointing showing. The team would like nothing more than to follow up last year's shoddy performance with an Eastern Sprints title.
In contrast, the men's lightweight teams will enter Easterns on a losing note. Their last competition was not one to remember, as they lost every race of the day to the Crimson.
On a brighter note, however, the lightweights enter Easterns as the returning champions and will look to emerge from Sprints as champions once again.
"Obviously we want to win," sophomore Steve Coppola said. "We've worked hard all year for this."
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