Courtesy: Princeton Athletic Communications The Princeton open crew split its opening weekend, which included a win over Ivy champion Brown.

For the second straight season, the Princeton open crew started its season off with an upset of one of the true Ivy League powers. Lori Dauphiny's squad split its 2009 opener at Lake Carnegie, falling by 3.2 seconds to Michigan and defeating 2008 Ivy League champion Brown by two seconds.

With many of its rowers back from last season, the Tigers were hopeful that they could get off to another strong start this season. It proved to be a challenging season-opening test for Princeton, which welcomed two NCAA hopefuls for the first race of the season. The Wolverines won the competition in 6:46.1, while the Tigers claimed The Brown & Princeton Trophy by finishing the varsity eight in 6:49.3. Brown, which placed second at the 2008 NCAA championships, finished third in 6:51.3.

Michigan won three races on the day, while Brown won the other two. Michigan took the second varsity eight and the freshman eight (which didn't include a Princeton boat), while Brown won both fours. The Wolverines won the second varsity eight in 6:56.1, while Brown won the main varsity four in 7:33.8. The Tigers placed third in both races, and also placed third in the varsity four B competition; Princeton also raced a freshman four in the competition.

Princeton will travel to Piscataway, N.J., next weekend to take on Rutgers and Columbia; its next competition on Lake Carnegie will take place April 11, when Princeton rows for The Class of 1975 Cup against Cornell, Harvard and Bucknell.