Penn? Please. No one rivals Princeton athletics

No one would argue that Princeton has a consistent rival when it comes to varsity athletics. Ohio State has Michigan, Harvard has Yale and Princeton has ... well, no one. Not having a single rivalry across all sports, however, does not mean that our teams do not have important games or exciting match-ups each year.

"The most important game of the season is the one you're playing next," junior linebacker Steve Sims said, insisting that his team does not focus on any one game over all others.

Nonetheless, he recognizes that fans get more excited about certain games.

"The Homecoming game is pretty hyped up because players have added incentive to win with former players and alumni in the stands," Sims said.

Sims also noted the importance of traditional games against Harvard and Yale, emphasizing that, since the team always plays Harvard first, beating the Crimson sets up the chance for a bonfire and raises the expectations surrounding the Yale game.

Nonetheless, Sims says he's mainly concerned with "building more of a fan base and creating more of a buzz around campus" than he is with finding an official rival, which would help the team attract thousands of fans to a single game. Sims insists the only way to draw a crowd to every home game is "to establish a legacy of winning," and reaching such a goal means that every game is important.

Senior cross country runner Bud Grote takes a different view.

"Winning the Ivy League is awesome, but performing on the national level is much more valuable," Grote said.

His team has eschewed the idea that Ivy competition is the ultimate goal, preferring to focus on qualifying for Nationals. As a result, the team focuses its preparation on the regional championship, the qualifying meeting for the NCAA Championships, where Princeton's main rivals are Villanova and Georgetown.

Given that mentality, the team has wdecided to sit out certain competitions. This year, for example, the Harvard-Yale-Princeton tri-meet was held at Princeton, but only Harvard and Yale competed. Grote explained that the meet "doesn't make sense for our season and our training."

Though the team certainly enjoys beating Harvard and Yale at the Ivy League Championship meet, the tri-meet would have disrupted a crucial part of its season-long training regimen geared toward qualifying for the NCAA Championships.

For Princeton students not familiar with running, it may be tempting to assume that the track team has similar goals and priorities. Grote notes, though, that this isn't the case.

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"The track mindset is totally different from cross country's," Grote said. "Winning the Ivy League Championship is always the [track] team['s] goal."

The disparity makes sense on paper because the track team must contend with Cornell, a significant rival, while cross-country does not.

"For the past several years Cornell has been very good," Grote said. "We know that to win the Indoor Championship, we will have to beat Cornell."

So while the cross country team expects to top the Ivy League and strives for success on the national stage, the track team realizes that winning the Heptagonal meet — the official name for the Ivy League Championship — is a meaningful accomplishment and worthwhile goal.

The softball team's situation is similar to the track team's in two ways: Its goal is to win the Ivy League title, and Cornell is usually the strongest competition.

"Our biggest rival is the team we feel will be the biggest challenge," junior outfielder Bri Moreno said. "Right now that's Cornell, but if another team becomes an annual contender, then they'll be our rival."

In men's basketball, of course, everyone knows about the Princeton-Penn rivalry.

"[Princeton and Penn have] dominated the Ivy League in basketball for the last 20 years," senior guard Zach Woolridge said. "That's why we kind of look at each other as rivals ... Traditionally, whoever has done better between Princeton and Penn goes to the NCAA Tournament."

The absence of a single consistent across all sports illustrates that unlike other schools, the Tigers are less interested in their opponents' names and more concerned with their skills. So who cares if Princeton doesn't have a nemesis — the Tigers are always hungry for a challenge, no matter where it comes from.