Champions on the Charles

The bullseye on the back of the men's heavyweight crew just got bigger.

Already considered among the top collegiate boats in the country, the Tiger crew defeated dozens of college and national crews to claim victory at the Head of the Charles race in Cambridge, Mass., on Sunday afternoon.

Finishing the roughly three-mile course in 14 minutes, 41.89 seconds, Princeton became the first collegiate crew to win the race — the most prestigious of the fall season — in 22 years. After leading through the early splits, the Tigers dropped to as low as fourth place at the final time check before overtaking the Dutch national crew and the defending champions, the Cambridge (England) University crew.

"In the Champ[ionship] Eight, the collegiate crews are looked at as more of [junior varsity] boats, and the big international boats are the varsity," senior Steve Coppola said. "On paper the JV isn't supposed to beat the varsity, but that's what they go out to do every day. We were ready to play with the big boys."

The women's open crew also turned in an outstanding performance, finishing second overall, trailing only the U.S. national team. The Tigers finished in 16:50.06, more than 10 seconds ahead of Virginia, the next-best collegiate crew.

In total, 12 Princeton boats raced Saturday and Sunday. The men's lightweight crew finished in ninth place overall, with Yale taking first place. Women's lightweight placed fourth overall and second among its collegiate opponents, behind the University of Wisconsin.

Senior-laden crew

For all the Tigers' success, the men's heavyweight crew's performance was by far the biggest story of the weekend.

"It was just a thrilling race," senior coxswain James Egan said. "Even in the first mile, [my teammates] were already exceeding all my expectations. And then closing in on a world-class crew like that ... sometimes, in a race, you can fizzle out and drop back, but we never did."

Support nonprofit student journalism. Donate to the ‘Prince.’ Donate now »

In truth, the success was not entirely unexpected. Seven of the nine Tigers in the boat that finished second at both Eastern Sprints and the International Rowing Association national championships last spring are back; junior Will England and seniors Egan, Coppola, Pier DeRoo, Michael Gottlieb, Alex Hearne and stroke Sam Loch.

The boats' starts were staggered 15 seconds apart, in the order of the previous year's finish, so each crew does not know exactly where it is in relation to the others during the race.

"We never really knew how good we were doing," Egan said. "We knew we had pulled away from the pack, but Cambridge just started out so far ahead of us, we had no idea."

Still, the Tigers had a feeling they were rowing well.

Get the best of the ‘Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

"Even from the first turn, we were already moving in on the Dutch, closing the gap between us and them," Egan said. "One mile to go in the race, we went all out. One of our strengths is the last mile. The Dutch were just doing all they could to stay in front and not let us pass. We were rolling in their wake for a large portion of the piece."

Making history

Only after Princeton returned to dry land were the rowers informed that it had been 22 years since a collegiate crew — Navy, in 1983 — had won.

"It was an awesome surprise," Egan said. "I think that a couple of guys knew that the last collegiate boat to win was back in the '80s, but we didn't really find out until after the race. I don't know our limitations now."

Given that the fall season is, in many ways, a tuneup for the spring season, the Tigers' early success in incorporating two new members — sophomore Glenn Orchal and junior Chris Richbourg — into the boat is even more promising.

"We only rowed in the lineup about a week and a half together," Egan said. "Usually it takes about a season of rowing together to make a boat crew go that fast, but the two guys we brought in are moving the boat well. I can only suppose that we're even much faster than that. It's pretty encouraging."

But for Princeton, the most important thing wasn't making history or winning the Head of the Charles, but rather understanding the steps that got them there.

"In the end it comes down to this: we hold ourselves to our own standard, and it's pretty high," Coppola said. "We wanted to row our own race and dictate the race, not have to react to someone else. We did that and came out on top."