After a challenging weekend to finish the regular season for the women’s open, men’s heavyweight and men’s lightweight crews, all four crews are now looking forward to the start of the postseason on Saturday. The men’s crews will compete in the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges Sprints in Worcester, Mass., while the women’s crews will race in the Eastern Association of Women’s Rowing Colleges Sprints in Cherry Hill, N.J.
The women’s open crew (12-0 overall, 7-0 Ivy League) just completed the team’s first perfect regular season since 2006 when it defeated Tennessee by just over 12 seconds last Saturday. Princeton is ranked No. 1 in the EAWRC poll, followed by Yale and Brown. The Tigers have already defeated the Bulldogs and the Bears this season. Princeton topped Yale by 7 seconds in the Eisenberg Cup and Brown by just over 2 seconds in the Class of 1987 Oar Award.
The Tigers also knocked off then-No. 1 University of Virginia in the Eisenberg Cup.
Lori Dauphiny, head coach of the open women’s crew, said, “The team will be ready to execute [its] race and do [its] very best” on Saturday.
The women’s lightweight crew (5-2, 1-0) has not raced since April 24 and has been practicing hard for its postseason races. In their last race, the women took the Class of 1999 Cup from Harvard and Bucknell, winning by 2.3 seconds. The Tigers are currently No. 2 in the USRowing collegiate rankings.
The men’s heavyweight crew (4-4, 3-3) enters Eastern Sprints fresh off a 3-second loss to Brown in the Content Cup. Last year at EARC Sprints, the Tigers came in fifth in their first heat, behind Harvard, Northeastern, Columbia and Navy. They won their second race against Penn, Georgetown, Rutgers and Holy Cross.
This year, Princeton is ranked No. 5 in the EARC polls, following Brown, Harvard, Yale and Wisconsin, in that order. After winning its first two races of the season, the Tigers have struggled in recent weeks, failing to win their last three races.
After suffering their first defeat since the 2008 season by coming in just 0.7 seconds behind Harvard, the men’s lightweights (7-1, 3-1) are hoping to regain their stride next weekend.
Currently ranked second in the EARC poll, their chances for performing well look promising. Last season, the Tigers took first place in EARC Sprints, when they beat out Harvard by almost 2.5 seconds.
“Since losing to Harvard in our last race of the regular season, the focus has been intense, and the competitiveness in our racing practices is more than I have seen all year,” head coach Marty Crotty said.
“This week, they’re rowing better and faster than they have been all season. I thought these guys played the hunted role very well, but watching them play the hunter role might be even more fun,” he added.
To qualify for the final heat in the sprints, the men’s lightweights will need to place at least third in its first heat against Navy, Cornell, Dartmouth, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and St. Joseph’s University, before moving on to the final for a potential rematch with the Harvard Crimson.

“All of training and preparation goes into making sure that we are able to have our peak performance in the final of the Eastern Sprints,” Crotty said. “All of winter training, and each race of our regular season, has shown me that we are on schedule for this.”