Courtesy: Princeton Athletic Communications The Princeton men's lightweights swept Penn to retain its No. 1 national ranking.

The top-ranked Princeton men's lightweight crew defeated Penn by more than 19 seconds to retain the Wood-Hammond Trophy against Penn during a beautiful Saturday morning regatta on the Schuylkill River. Princeton won all four races and will now turn its attention to a showdown of the top three teams in the country next weekend.

Princeton won its 11th straight regular-season race, dating back to last season, by topping Penn in a time of 5:46.2; the Quakers placed second in 6:05.8. The Tigers had decisive wins in all four races: the 2V won by approximately 15 seconds with a time of 5:58.4; the 3V won by more than 11 seconds in 6:22.9 and the novice eight won by more than 12 seconds in 6:03.1.

The first varsity, whose win over three-time national champion Cornell last weekend earned the Tigers the Princeton Athlete of the Week honors, sponsored by Princeton Army ROTC, should retain its No. 1 national ranking heading into the next weekend. That should set up a top-ranked battle for The Goldthwait and Vogel Cups against both No. 2 Harvard and No. 3 Yale. Last season, Princeton won The Goldthwait Cup for the first time since 2000.