The Heptagonal Championships will take place this weekend at Dartmouth's Leverone Fieldhouse. All eight Ivy League schools plus Navy will square off for an intense two-day, team-scored battle.
Last weekend, Princeton University, unbeknownst to many of its students, hosted the Intercollegiate Squash Association championships.Big deal?It actually was a big deal.Hosting college squash's version of the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament, albeit with far less teams, gave Princeton the unique privilege to witness firsthand the nation's top college squash players.College squash is one of those few sports here at Princeton, according to the humble opinion of this lowly sports writer, where its players are nearly as good as professional ones; where action is seldom dull; and where a day spent literally holed underground in Jadwin Gym's C-Floor, even on a dreary late Sunday morning, is not wasted.Sunday's top three finals matches were seemingly the three most entertaining matches one might find in all of men's college squash.The first found senior David Yik, who won the national championship in 2001 as a sophomore, playing Trinity's Nickolas Kyme.The catlike Yik came alive in the second game after a slow start, bearing a smile less the result of quirky fan cheers than the fact that Kyme seemed to be gradually losing his shorts on the court as the match unraveled.
Every season, the women's track team ventures forth in hopes of striking fear into the hearts of its foes and reigning victorious at the Heptagonal Championships.Occasionally they are rebuffed and sent home bereft of any sort of compensation for their efforts or pride.
"Relax." ? the word that triggered male model Derrick Zoolander to become a killing machine might as well be senior Jesse Gage's personal motto.
With Alumni Day festivities occupying Jadwin Gymnasium, the final indoor home meet of the season for both the men's and women's track and field teams was relegated to the posh facilities of Lawrenceville Prep, four miles down Route 206.The Heptagonal Championship, an antiquated name for the championship contested by the Ivy League and Navy, are this upcoming weekend and as such, the past weekend's competition was downplayed.
It is said that when a person goes blind, his other senses are heightened. If a person loses a finger, the rest of the hand gets stronger to compensate for the loss.
Crushing Rutgers in the first game, the Scarlet Knights came back and won three of the final four games, to beat the Tigers, 3-2..Going into the final game tied, 2-2, the Tigers had the chance to win their second straight, but Rutgers was too strong in the fifth game, and pulled out a 15-13 win.Sophomore Blake Robinson led the Tigers with 21 kills on the night.
From the looks on the Tigers' faces late Sunday, it was hard to tell they had just lost.The men's squash Class of 2003 ended its career at Jadwin Gym this past weekend in the Intercollegiate Squash Association Team Championships.
In a meet the wrestling team had awaited all season, Penn did not fail to challenge Princeton. Always one of the top Ivy League teams, the Tigers wrestled well, but could not claim enough points to beat the always powerful Quakers.Princeton won four of the meet's ten matches to keep it close, but the depth of the Quakers ? No.
Still looking for cohesion and confidence, the women's tennis team faced two non-conference opponents this weekend, and easily defeated both of them.
Maybe playing blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs would have made the weekend a little more exciting for the men's tennis players.
As of late, the men's hockey team has had little problem scoring goals against its opponents. Ordinarily, scoring would translate into victories for a hockey team.
The doomsayers had been out in full force for over a week. The men's basketball season was over they said.
"We thought this was going to be our coming out game ? a chance to prove ourselves against a challenging team," senior captain Maureen Lane said following the women's basketball game against Dartmouth on Friday."But at least we have a chance to prove ourselves tomorrow night against Harvard," she added.It turned out to be a good weekend for Lane, with her 16 points and eight rebounds against Dartmouth and her double-double, 20-point, 12-rebound performance against Harvard.Junior forward Kelly Schaeffer and freshman center Rebecca Brown also excelled both nights.
It was tough to tell which was the bigger game for women's hockey on this weekend's road trip. On Friday, tenth-ranked Princeton took on the No.
What's the magic number? For Princeton fencing it seemed to be 16-11 as the Tigers foiled Harvard nearly perfect season.
Women's hockey has been sitting near the bottom of the national top-ten rankings and the middle of the conference standings all year, and this weekend provides a chance to make a big splash in both lists.With four games left before the Eastern College Athletic Conference playoffs begin, Princeton (15-7-2 overall, 8-4-0 ECAC) makes its final road trip of the season with stops in Cambridge Friday night to take on top-ranked Harvard (21-1-1, 10-0-1) and Providence Saturday to face Brown (9-10-4, 6-4-1).After a disappointing loss on the second end of a home-and-away series with Yale last weekend, the Tigers sit in fourth place in the ECAC, two points behind sixth-ranked St.
From here on out, every game is a must-win for the men's basketball team. After losing two games last week to league-leading Penn and Brown, the Tigers find themselves in third place in the Ivy League, two games behind the Quakers and a game and a half behind the Bears.Though Princeton will play both of those teams one more time this season, the squad cannot afford any more setbacks in the meantime if its goal of making the NCAA tournament is to be realized.This weekend, the Tigers (11-9 overall, 5-2 Ivy League) travel into the teeth of New England to take on Dartmouth (6-15, 2-6) and Harvard (11-10, 3-5) for the second time this season.Earlier in the year, the Tigers downed the Crimson 67-61 in a game that came down to the final two minutes.
Could it happen again?Earlier this season, when the women's basketball team (8-13 overall, 3-4 Ivy League) faced Dartmouth (11-10, 5-3) and Harvard (16-4, 8-0) in one weekend, it lost by a combined total of 58 points.Last year, the Tigers beat Harvard before the Crimson went on to win the Ivy League Title.
Last Saturday marked the running of the historic H-Y-P triangular track meet. As has come to be expected in recent years, the Princeton men opted for practicality rather than tradition ? they chose not to compete in Cambridge but to send their top scorers to the highly contested Armory Invitational.The former Armory's banked mondo track is considered one of the fastest in the country.
