Crew: Childs Cup returns to Princeton

Last weekend, the men’s heavyweight, women’s open and women’s lightweight crews competed away from Princeton’s home at Lake Carnegie. The men traveled to New York City, where they claimed the Childs Cup by defeating Penn and Columbia. The women’s open crew kept its hold on the Class of ’75 Cup by besting Cornell and Radcliffe (Harvard) in Ithaca, N.Y. Far off in Redwood Shores, Calif., the women’s lightweight crew suffered close losses to top-ranked Wisconsin and Stanford but beat Sonoma State by a wide margin.

The Childs Cup, collegiate crew’s oldest trophy, was in the hands of Columbia going into last Saturday’s race. Only one year ago, the Lions bested the Tigers to take the trophy for the first time in 15 years, beating out their competition by just less than nine seconds. In the day’s vital varsity eight race, the Columbia boat still proved to be Princeton’s stiffest competition, with both teams finishing within a three-second margin. But Princeton’s time of 6 minutes, 6.0 seconds proved to be fast enough to bring the Childs Cup, which the Tigers have now won 42 times, back to Lake Carnegie. The Quakers, though strong in the second varsity race, trailed behind their rivals in the race for the cup, clocking in at 6:14.6.

The women’s open crew retained the Class of ’75 Cup for another year, but entering the weekend, the trophy was still anyone’s. A year ago, the Tigers had finished comfortably in front of both Cornell and Radcliffe, but a strong race by the latter at last May’s Eastern Association of Women’s Rowing Colleges grand final proved that the Crimson had the will to win. Nonetheless, Princeton managed to once again keep the competition at a safe distance on Saturday, with the varsity eight boat finishing in 6:51.9, nearly 18 seconds ahead of the second-place Big Red. Radcliffe brought up the rear with a time of 7:18.2. The second varsity eight and varsity four boats claimed similarly comfortable victories, adding to the momentum the women’s open crew has been building since its strong season opener against Columbia and Rutgers.

The weekend’s races in California saw duels between some of the nation’s strongest teams. The women’s lightweights began the weekend with a comfortable morning win over Sonoma State on Saturday, but their fortune turned in their second race against No. 1 Wisconsin, the winner of the 2009 Windermere Classic, Intercollegiate Rowing Association Grand Finals and EAWRC grand final. After an extremely tight race, the Badgers managed to beat out the Tigers by less than three seconds. The next morning, Princeton took second to No. 2 Stanford by a mere four seconds.

After a week off, the men’s llightweights will bring Cornell and St. Joseph’s to Lake Carnegie this weekend for the Platt Cup. They will be joined by the women’s lightweights, who will be meeting Georgetown to contest the Class of 2006 Cup, and the women’s open, who will take on Yale and Virginia in the Eisenberg Cup. The men’s heavyweights will be in Cambridge, Mass., for the Compton Cup against Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.