Senior Ariel Frost served as the U.S. women's 8+ coxswain for the 2009 U23 World Championships, held recently in Racice, Czech Republic. Frost was one of seven current or former Tigers who competed in the U23 Worlds.

Frost, who served as the Princeton open cox and helped the Tigers to both a bronze medal at the 2009 EAWRC championships and a spot in the NCAA grand final, helped guide the U.S. boat into the grand final. Among the teams Princeton would match up against was the Canadian 8+; that boat featured two of her Tiger teammates in junior Ashtown Brown (3-seat) and junior Lauren Wilkinson (7-seat).

Midway through the race, the U.S. was in third position behind both Great Britain and Poland. The final half of the race belonged to the Americans, though; they posted the fastest times in each of the last two splits to move past Poland for second position with a time of 6:21.80. Poland placed third in 6:23.16, while Canada finished fourth in 6:28.67, nearly three full seconds ahead of the fifth-place German boat.

Like the women's 8+, the Canadian men's 8+ featured two Princeton rowers. Recent heavyweight graduate Matt Evans (6-seat) and junior heavyweight Blake Parsons (3-seat) helped the Canadians to the grand final, where they stood second at the 1000-meter mark. They couldn't hold that pace, though, and German, Great Britain and Australia each went past them in the final 1000. Canada ended up fifth in 5:37.74.

Junior lightweight rower Nick Donald rowed in the U.S. men's 2- and placed eighth (7:02.48), while lightweight women's graduate Madeline Davis rowed in the U.S. women's lightweight 2x and placed 12th in 7:48.08.

The U19 World Championships are currently going on in Brive-La-Gaillarde, France, where six incoming Princeton freshmen will compete for Team USA. Brian Wettach (Wakefield, Mass.) and Alex Taaffe (Sarasota, Fla.), both of whom will row for the heavyweights next year, are part of the men's 8+, while fellow heavyweight recruit Allan Amico (Orchard Park, N.Y.) will row for the men's 4-.

Two incoming open recruits will also compete. Molly Hamrick (Tampa, Fla.) is going to row on the women's 8+, while Nicole Bielawski (Old Westbury, N.Y.) will row in the single sculls competition. Incoming lightweight freshman Kimberly Hopewell (Ridgefield, Conn.) is part of the quadruple sculls boat.

"Kim is the first recruit in our program's history to experience international caliber rowing prior to attending Princeton," head coach Paul Rassam said. "We are fortunate to have such a talented rower joining our team next year. She thinks big, and trains hard to acheive her lofty goals, which is just the type of athlete we are always looking for. I believe she will have an immediate impact on our squad this fall."