Are there any good teams in the National Football League this season? It’s hard to tell. This past week certainly did not help at all.
After 23 consecutive losing seasons in the Ivy League, the men’s wrestling team entered last year with some moderately optimistic expectations. With a strong recruiting class coming in, the Tigers were hoping to improve on their two wins from the 2008-09 season.
After a rough opening stretch to its season, the women’s hockey team (3-4 overall, 3-2 ECAC Hockey) returned from its weekend on the road with two wins. Without much time to prepare, the Tigers jumped right into game play three weeks ago. In its opening exhibition game versus McGill, Princeton had a slow start that caused it to fall behind early and never score for the equalizer, ending the game with a 4-3 loss. The next day, Princeton hosted Yale and Brown for an Ivy League preseason round robin in which the Tigers beat the Bulldogs 4-2 but fell to the Bears 3-0.
Jadwin Gymnasium, home to Princeton basketball for 41 years, is a puzzling sort of place. A mess of orange and black and Astroturf green, it sits tucked away in a far-flung corner of campus, hidden from the sight of all but the most dedicated of travelers. Its buttressed ceilings and dreary, gray walls, only rarely filled by the thousands it was designed to hold, suggest something of an industrial bent — a silent acknowledgement of a time when efficiency was king and aesthetics the court jester.
The Class of 2010 gave Princeton nine men’s hockey players who would collectively become the winningest class in the program’s history. They had more than 20 wins their sophomore and junior seasons and qualified for bids in the NCAA tournament those years. With that class gone, this year’s team aims to return to winning form following a disappointing injury-ridden season last year.
Eight straight All-NBA first teams beginning with his rookie season (and a first, three seconds, and a third after that with no appearances outside the top 15).
It has been seven full seasons since the men’s basketball team won its last Ivy League title. But this year could change that, as preseason predictions expect the Tigers to wrest back control of the Ancient Eight.
On Saturday, the women’s basketball team will watch a banner fall from the rafters at Jadwin Gymnasium, marking the team’s historic 2009-10 season. The Tigers won 21 consecutive games from December to March, went a perfect 14-0 in the Ivy League and earned the program’s first-ever NCAA tournament berth.
If Bilesh Ladva ’11 were born in India a hundred years ago, his caste might have relegated him to a life of making clay pots. His ancestors were Kumbhars, or potters, and belonged to a class in the middle of the social hierarchy of ancient India.
Following much anticipation, the NCAA revealed the bracket for the 2010 NCAA field hockey championship during its selection show Tuesday night.
The women’s golf team took first place in the final tournament of its fall season last week. The Tigers traveled to Kahuku, Hawaii, to compete in the Turtle Bay Resort Collegiate Invitational a seven-team tournament that included Hawaii; Brigham Young University; University of British Columbia; Portland State; Southern Illinois; and University of California, Irvine.
The men’s hockey team earned its first victory of the season Saturday night against Brown, regaining some momentum after a 5-3 loss at No. 5 Yale on Friday. The Tigers (1-3 overall, 1-1 ECAC Hockey) battled back from a two-goal deficit to beat the Bears (1-2-1, 0-1-1) 4-3 and split their first weekend of league play.
The crew program performed well for the second week in a row at the Princeton 3-Mile Chase on Halloween. The heavyweight eight, men’s lightweight eight, open eight and open four all took first place in their divisions, and the program also claimed titles in the pair and double competitions. The heavyweight eight race was the first event of the morning, and Princeton’s boat began in first, as is traditional for the defending champion.
The sprint football team was shut out for a third straight game on Friday in its final game of the season, this time by Penn. The Quaker offense dominated the Tigers (0-7 overall, 0-5 Collegiate Sprint Football League) in a 70-0 win in which the Quakers (6-1, 4-1) scored touchdowns on 10 of their 13 possessions.
Jason Garrett ’89, one of Princeton’s greatest quarterbacks, has been named the interim head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Garrett, who was the team’s offensive coordinator and assistant head coach, was promoted following the firing of head coach Wade Phillips on Monday afternoon.
It was far from a relaxing fall break for the women’s ice hockey team. Princeton (3-4 overall, 3-2 ECAC Hockey) opened league play with three wins in five games, only losing 5-1 to No. 2 Cornell (6-1, 4-0) and 5-2 to Quinnipiac (7-4-1, 2-3). In their other three games, the Tigers beat Colgate (3-7, 1-3) 2-0, Rensselaer (3-6-2, 2-2) 2-1 and Union (1-9, 0-4) 3-2 in overtime.
In the near-non-stop athletic news cycle, it’s rare to catch history being made. Injuries and upsets can break otherwise perfect seasons. Dumb chance can blow flawless games. But when Princeton’s cross country teams entered the Heptagonal Championship in New York City on Oct. 29, history could have gone either way.
After the clock stopped running and the crowd had thinned, when the children had rushed the field to burn what energy they had left before their parents took them home, all that remained of the Team That Could Have Been was a group of men in orange and black, standing solemnly at attention as they mustered what little spirit they had left to sing the school alma mater: “Our hearts will give while we shall live; three cheers for Old Nassau.”
'Prince' sports editors roundup this fall's Ivy League Season, with five teams clinching the Ivy League championship this weekend.
As the field hockey team tried on its new 2010 Ivy League champions gear after a 10-0 victory over Penn, Kristen Holmes-Winn reflected on her sixth consecutive championship as head coach and the team’s 16th title in 17 years.
