Sports’ Shorts: updates on men's and women's crew and golf

Tenth of a second separates Columbia lightweight crew from Princeton

The term “photo finish” is used to describe a result remarkable for its closeness. Not often is actual photographic evidence required to differentiate two sides at the finish line.On Saturday, Princeton’s and Columbia’s lightweight varsity eight were separated by just a tenth of second. But that determination could only be made when the Ivy rivals referred to the video, which made apparent that Columbia had won with a time of 6:03.2.

Although they did not pick up a first place finish, the Tigers defended possession of the Murtaugh Cup with a win over Navy.

In two of the three remaining races, the Princeton boats pulled off wins by 4.5 seconds in the second eight battle and 2.7 seconds in the third. Navy’s fourth boat won its race with a 7.6-second edge over Princeton.

Lake Carnegie will be the site of Princeton’s next two regattas, which will include competition against Ivy League foes Cornell and Penn.

Men’s heavyweight crew tops Navy in annual showdown

Princeton opened its official racing season Saturday in Annapolis with an exciting 1.4-second victory over the Midshipmen. Racing in the “1952” boat named for the year of a memorable Olympic trials showdown between the two schools, the Tigers’ top varsity squad edged out Navy’s “The Great Eight” 6:06.2 to 6:07.6.

“Navy's a strong crew and put up a great fight, so were excited to bring home the Princeton Navy Cup again this season,” senior Dave Mackasey said. “We got out to a quick clean start and were able to maintain our lead, something we set out to do and have been working hard on at practice this spring.”

No. 4 Tigers also stole the second varsity race over No. 12 Midshipmen by an even narrower margin, 6:09.3 to 6:09.5. Next up for Princeton is the Childs Cup, the oldest collegiate rowing trophy in the nation. The race will take place Saturday morning on the Schuylkill River and features Penn and Columbia as opponents.

Women’s golf team unable to capitalize on strong stats at Trump national

Princeton, +59 as a team through with a total score of 635, was edged out by Columbia and Yale after more or less falling apart on the second day. In the standard NCAA stroke play, the four best scores from each team are counted. Currently, the Tigers have only four golfers available for play, which puts a great deal of pressure on those remaining.

Sophomore Alexandra Wong, who sat tied for sixth after the first day, earned her first career top five finish, tying with teammate Shon in fifth place. Wong’s score of 76 was one of the second day’s best marks.

Jarmas and Dombrowski place in the top 10 for Princeton

The men had two top 10 finishes in the Met Intercollegiate held this past Saturday in Purchase, N.Y. Senior Greg Jarmas and freshman Alex Dombrowski tied for seventh place with scores of 153 over 36 holes.

Two Ivy League sides in Yale and Harvard, with respective scores of 613 and 618, bested Princeton’s four-player mark of 633.

First-place Georgia dominated the event, with Bulldogs posting five of the best 10 scores. Worthy of note was the brilliant round one mark of 64 set by sophomore sensation Lee McCoy, who had one of the best rookie seasons in the nation last year.

The one spring home event comes this weekend for the Princeton men, provided the forecast improves. Saturday and Sunday will see teams compete in the Princeton Invitational at the beautiful Springdale Golf Club.

Fourth-ranked lightweights shine in San Diego

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Currently ranked fourth in the nation, the women’s lightweight crew team opened its 2014 season in strong fashion at the San Diego Crew Classic. Princeton placed second in the Women’s Collegiate Lightweight grand final on Sunday afternoon with a time of 7:08.59. Top ranked Stanford, the four-time defending national champion, won the race in 7:03.10. Both Stanford and Princeton were far ahead of third-place Tulsa, which clocked a 7:32.40. Most impressive for the Tigers was the nearly five-second deficit they cut between their runner-up placement to Stanford between Saturday’s prelim heat and Sunday’s final.

After extensive travel, the lightweights will stay in the Garden State for the next three weekends of competition, starting next weekend on Lake Mercer for a chance to grab the Knecht Cup.

Seventh-ranked open women split on Lake Carnegie

The seventh-ranked open weight women split a three-team regatta on Saturday on Lake Carnegie. The varsity eight picked up its first Ivy League win of the season over Columbia, while it fell by three seconds to third-ranked Virginia. Coming off of last weekend’s split against Brown and Michigan State, the varsity eight is now 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the Ivy League. Both of the Tigers’ losses have come to teams ranked in the top five in the latest national rankings.

Princeton’s second varsity eight continued to dominate on the season, moving to 4-0 after going undefeated during the 2013 season. The Tigers avenged the varsity eight’s three-second loss to Virginia with their own three-second victory over Virginia’s second boat. The open women will travel to Boston on Saturday to compete against Harvard and Cornell for the Class of 1975 Cup.