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We're No. 13! And moving up the ladder

To be honest, my first reaction was less than charitable. Something along the lines of “What?” followed by two more words that I won’t repeat.

My second reaction was that these rankings were historical. Princeton, after all, certainly has a proud athletic tradition. As I’m sure you’ve heard before, the Tigers have the most national championships of any college football program. Of course, 24 of those titles came before 1901 — the same year Queen Victoria died.

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Imagine my surprise when I learned that Sports Illustrated’s formula only included results from last year. After some thought, I realized that I’ve been a bit too harsh on Princeton sports in my time here.

My first encounter with the Tigers was during the football team’s 43-3 destruction of Columbia in its 2005 Ivy home opener. It was also the first time I reported on a game. My suggested headline for the article was, “Princeton wins the Battle of the Big Cats.” I’ve gotten a lot better at writing headlines since then.

My enduring memory of that year, however, was Princeton’s 21-14 home loss to Yale. Coming in early November, it was our last home game, and most of my friends actually decided to attend. For some of them, it was the only game they attended all year, and there are still some pictures of them wearing expressions of agonized astonishment. As in, “How are we losing?”

That demoralizing game has hung over my impression of our program like a fog, constantly coloring my perception. Even as the Tigers avenged the loss the next year in a 34-31 classic that earned the school its first bonfire in more than a decade, I was more incredulous than overjoyed.

This year, however, I’m discovering just how good Princeton is. All it took was an eye-opening article in Sports Illustrated — and the willingness to focus on some of the lesser-known sports on campus.

Already, we can claim four Ivy titles from the fall season, with the first two coming from our cross-country runners.

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I was elated to hear that junior Liz Costello had broken the 17-minute barrier at the Heptagonal Championship and was just as pleased to learn that the men had won their own title by the skin of their teeth. Two very different dramatic finishes, each equally compelling.

Just a week later, the women’s soccer team won a tense thriller with Penn in overtime. Though they certainly couldn’t do anything the easy way, the Tigers certainly had a formula for success: relentless defense and ice in the veins when crunch time came. Senior forward Sarah Peteraf deserves a Golden Boot — or, as a consolation prize, an Ivy League Player of the Year award — for her seven game-winning goals, and I’d anticipate multiple All-Ivy selections along the back line.

Last but not least, the field hockey team won another Ivy championship. If you’re getting some serious deja vu, it’s because the trophy has basically rusted to Princeton’s mantle by now: The Tigers have taken the crown in 14 of the past 15 years.

Meanwhile, Old Nassau’s strongest teams may not even have taken the field (or court, or river) yet. Get prepped for a few more titles in three sports in which Princeton is a perennial challenger: crew, squash and lacrosse. And while you’re at it, throw on a winter jacket to take in a few of the No. 12 men’s hockey team’s games as it embarks upon a title-defense campaign.

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 Just don’t forget, between hedge-fund interviews and your seventh midterm of the semester, that you go to the No. 13 sports school in the nation.

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