Brown upset by women's varsity

“It was a stiff headwind, but we’re used to it because of our windy spring break training,” freshman Lauren Wilkinson said of the hostile conditions.

The Tigers’ lightweight team, coming off two victories Saturday, pulled strong for a thrilling head-to-head win over host Stanford at the Pac-10 Challenge in Redwood Shores, Calif. Despite an enthusiastic Cardinal crowd, Princeton led for almost the entire 2,000 meters and won by 2.6 seconds.

“[Stanford] led for the first couple strokes, but we immediately chipped away [the lead] and pushed our bow ahead,” senior captain Caroline English said. “It came down to a strong finishing 500 [meters], but we executed well.”

Back in New Jersey, the win by the Tigers’ open 1V boat allowed Princeton to recapture the regatta’s annually contested Brown/Princeton trophy from the Bears. The Tigers finished with a time of seven minutes, 13.40 seconds.

“We didn’t know how we measured up to Brown, so the goal was to beat them and get the trophy back,” Wilkinson said. “We wanted to beat [Michigan State] too, but they weren’t in on the trophy.”

Princeton’s other open teams, however, could not carry the varsity eight’s momentum. The 2V team and both fours finished at the back of their races, while the novice eight came in ahead of Michigan State but behind the Bears by eight seconds. The 1V women, however, did race under better course conditions. Winds were worst during the 2V and the novice eight races, according to row2k.com.

The Tiger lightweight crew also faced difficult winds on Saturday while racing in California. In the morning, Princeton’s 1V dominated Loyola Marymount with a time of 7:14.40, the fastest women’s lightweight time of the day, but posted only a 7:43.66 to beat MIT later in the afternoon. Even so, both races set the Tigers up for the next day’s important win against Stanford.

“We took [those races] as opportunities to solidify race plans,” English said. “We worked out kinks in the afternoon after executing well in the morning, and ultimately it made us more comfortable racing [on Sunday].”

The 2V boat also rode a tide of confidence into Sunday, coming off decisive wins over 1V boats from California and Santa Clara the day before. Santa Clara proved to be the more challenging team, leading Princeton for the first 750 meters, but the Tigers gradually gained ground and then held steady for the win.

On Sunday afternoon, Princeton matched up against California’s open 3V team. While the larger and stronger Golden Bears took the win, the outclassed Tigers maintained a steady margin throughout the race.

“We lost by a length and a half, but it was good experience,” senior Christina Mannion said. “We have a young group, so it’s good that they can learn how to react to what the other boat is doing while maintaining composure.”

Next weekend, the Princeton lightweights will return to Lake Carnegie for a rematch against MIT, which will start at 9 a.m. At 11 a.m., the women’s open teams will face off against Rutgers and Columbia. Based on this weekend’s encouraging opening performances, it seems that both women’s crews will continue to make waves as the season progresses.