While most students still have a few days before they return to campus for the new school year, fall varsity athletes have already found their way back to Princeton to start preseason training. With the beginning of the fall seasons just a few weeks away and some exciting stories on the horizon, we bring you the final installment of this summer’s athletics highlights.
Tigers, Tigers, everywhere
This summer has seen no shortage of Princeton athletes looking to make their mark on both the national and international sports stages.
In the last week of July, sophomore Conor McCullough — competing for Team USA at the International Association of Athletics Federations World Junior Championship — placed first in the men's hammer throw and secured the title of World Junior Champion.
Freshman Kelly Shon — who will join the roster of the women's golf team as the only first-year — was profiled by Golfweek Magazine in early August and won two rounds at the US Women's Amateur tournament in Charlotte, N.C.
The women's swimming and diving team also has something to boast about, as freshman Andrea Kropp, who will join the team this winter, won the 200-meter breaststroke at the 2010 Speedo Junior National Championships.
The rowing teams had solid showings this summer as well, as current and former members racked up seven medals overall at July's U-23 World Championships in Belarus.
Additionally, senior linebacker and football team co-captain Steven Cody was named a third-team preseason All-American by College Sporting News — his second preseason All-America nod of 2010. If he stays healthy, Cody — who has received two All-Ivy League mentions in three years and finished fifth in the nation in tackles per game last season — should be able to cap off his stellar collegiate career with another strong campaign.
Looking ahead
The upcoming sports year promises to be an exciting one — especially for the football team, which will be making its home-field debut under the new leadership of head coach Bob Surace '90 on September 25 against Lafayette. Princeton was picked to finish sixth in the Ivy League in this year’s preseason media poll, while Harvard was the favorite to win the title outright. The Tigers will kick off their season in Bethlehem, Pa. on September 18 against Lehigh, a team they beat last season.
The men's basketball team's November 14 game against defending national champion Duke continues to be one of the most potentially thrilling matchups of the entire year, one the campus will be anticipating with bated breath. Since we last checked in, the team has also added as its home opener a game against Rutgers on November 12. Though they don't have the marquee name that Duke does, the Scarlet Knights should provide a good test for the Tigers, who are in prime position to contend for the Ivy League title and advance to the NCAA tournament.
On the women's side, the field hockey team once again appears to be a contender for the national title: it was ranked fourth in the Kookaburra/NFHCA Division I Preseason Poll and will be seeking its sixth consecutive conference title — its sixteenth since 1993. The team made it to the final four last year, dropping its semi-final matchup to then-undefeated Maryland, which is now ranked No. 2.
Also joining the list of ranked squads is the men's soccer team, which was ranked No. 27 in both the College Soccer News Preseason Poll and the topdrawsoccer.com Preseason National Poll. Last year the squad fell at home to Bucknell in its opening-round NCAA tournament game by a score of 1-0.
After making it to the final four and winning the consolation game last season, the men's water polo team is kicking off the year ranked No. 14.
In the post-Princeton realm, U.S. men's soccer coach Bob Bradley '80 was given a new four-year contract after weeks of speculation that he would leave the team for the English Premier League. Instead, it looks like we could be seeing another Tiger-led squad at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
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