After exciting dual meets in 2011 and 2012, the men’s swimming and diving team had no such drama against Navy on Saturday. Princeton submerged the Midshipmen 182-115 at DeNunzio Pool, winning 12 of 16 events to remain perfect this season.
The men’s basketball team will head into Ivy League play with some much-needed momentum. After a series of close losses and lost leads early in the season, the Tigers (6-7) won three of four games over winter break.
A few hours after the men’s basketball team lost to Fordham at the Barclays Center last weekend, the fans started filing in. Sporting navy blue shirts and yellow towels, the had come to support their Michigan Wolverines as they took on West Virginia in the NBA’s newest and most hyped-up arena.The crowd for the Michigan-West Virginia game was far larger than the crowd that came out to support St. Johns or St. Francis in the game before that, which in turn was larger than the fan base that turned out for Princeton or Fordham in the day’s first game. But for the Barclays Center, which is trying to establish itself as a “must-play” for both local schools and top national teams, the pull and popularity of the teams it invites to play are not necessarily the most important factor.
The men’s basketball team will look to get the season back on track when they travel to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., to take on Fordham this Saturday after having blown another second-half lead against Drexel in their last outing, dropping the Tigers to 3-5. Fordham (1-8) is the perfect opponent for Princeton to attempt just that as the Rams have lost five games in a row.
The men’s hockey team, even with a few injuries, hung with the big dogs in college hockey in the first half of the 2012-13 season. Currently tied for fifth in the ECAC, one of the deepest conferences in Division I, Princeton (3-6-3 overall, 2-3-3 ECAC) has held its own against a number of nationally ranked teams.
Clay Wilson is a sophomore guard on the men’s basketball team. He is second on the team in scoring this season, with 9.1 points per game, and leads the team in three-point attempts — the classic sixth man. He sat down with the ‘Prince’ to discuss basketball, faith and Justin Bieber.
Senior defensive linemen Caraun Reid and Mike Catapano were named to two Football Championship Subdivision All-America teams this week. The Associated Press named Catapano to its second team and Reid to its third team on Wednesday; The Sports Network made Reid a second-team selection and Catapano a third-teamer.
Despite Niveen Rasheed’s game-high 15 points, the women’s basketball team (6-4) fell to Villanova (8-1) 61-54 at The Pavilion. Princeton dropped its second straight matchup in a four-game road stretch, losing to Delaware on Sunday, while the Wildcats extended their win streak to seven. However, Villanova and Delaware are among the Tigers’ toughest opponents this season, highlighting their non-conference schedule.
One month into the season, no Ivy League men’s basketball team has truly excelled so far. The conference as a whole is weaker than some past editions, with an aggregate record 15 games below .500. Still, when league play starts in January, there should be plenty of excitement.
Covering the wall above the desk of men’s head track and field coach Fred Samara are mementos and pictures of achievements and athletes from years gone by. Just two doors down in Jadwin Gymnasium is the office of women’s head track and cross country coach Peter Farrell, who has been working at Princeton alongside Samara since the sport’s inception for women at the University in 1978. Together, Farrell and Samara are the two oldest active head coaches at Princeton, having led the men’s and women’s programs into a class of their own.
The 32-year presence of Bob Callahan ’77 at the helm of the Princeton men’s squash program never actually began with squash. He arrived at Princeton in 1973 as an undergraduate recruited to play tennis, until the captain of the men’s squash team approached Callahan during his freshman year and begged him to try the sport for a few weeks. Nearly four decades later, the Princeton icon lived through an unforgettable year involving an emotional national championship, a brain tumor and Hall of Fame enshrinement.
There have been plenty of sports families, but few have been as close as the fencing team’s Stone siblings. Senior Eliza Stone, junior Robert Stone and freshman Gracie Stone, joke about how similar they are to one another. They study the same language, are in the same concentration, fence the same weapon and have all been successful.
Field hockey head coach Kristen Holmes-Winn was named the NFHCA National Coach of the Year this week, receiving the honor after leading Princeton to its first NCAA championship in program history in November.
Sophomore Nicole Bunyan from Victoria, British Columbia, has found early success in her Princeton squash career. After going 14-2 as a freshman last season and earning second-team All-America honors, Bunyan has been playing No. 2 for the Tigers this season. Princeton (3-0) begins its Ivy League schedule in January. The ‘Prince’ sat down with Bunyan to discuss soccer, the first day of school and Canada.
Swimming and diving are lumped together so often that they are practically thought of as the same sport. Yes, they both require a pool, but talk to a diver for a few minutes and you will find that that is where the similarities end.
Chess is said to be one of the most intellectually engaging and challenging games ever invented, so I was not surprised to hear that Princeton has a chess club. But when given the opportunity to sit in on one of its practices, I was not really sure what to expect.
The women’s ice hockey team fought hard but dropped both games this weekend when it faced off against ECAC rival Quinnipiac in a home-and-home weekend double header. Princeton (4-10-2 overall, 2-8-2 ECAC) remains within qualifying range for the postseason conference tournament, but with only six points and a close middle of the pack, they must be vigilant to maintain their position.
It was a busy weekend for the wrestling team. In Princeton’s home opener at Dillon Gymnasium against No. 18 Binghamton on Friday, the Tigers led early before falling 23-12 to the visitors in a roaring comeback. In its other match of the weekend, Princeton lost by a convincing score of 30-6 to in-state rival Rutgers in New Brunswick.
In her first collegiate competition, freshman Julia Ratcliffe of the women’s track and field team set the Ivy League record in the weight throw. Ratcliffe’s second toss at Sunday’s New Year’s Invitational at Jadwin Gymnasium sailed 63 feet, 1 inch, breaking the previous record by three-quarters of an inch. She reset the record with two of her following throws, including the final record of 64 feet, 3 inches on her fifth attempt.
The men’s squash team continued a strong start to its 2012-2013 season with an exciting 7-2 victory against No. 5 Rochester at Jadwin Gymnasium on Saturday.
