Courtesy: Tom NowakOne year after finishing sixth in the NCAA championship petite final, which head coach Lori Dauphiny felt left a bitter taste to the 2008 season, the Tigers are back in the biggest race of all. With an impressive final 1000 meters, Princeton placed second in its semifinal heat and will compete Sunday morning for its second NCAA title in four years.
Princeton, which entered the NCAA championships ranked eighth among varsity eights, will compete with five other crews for the NCAA championship Sunday at 11:45 a.m. on Cooper River in Cherry Hill, N.J. The Tigers will row in lane five and will be joined by (1) Brown, (2) Stanford, (3) California, (4) Virginia and (6) Yale.
While simply making the NCAA championship final is an impressive accomplishment, Dauphiny knows that the team will be plenty ready for Sunday.
"It's anybody's game," said the Mid-Atlantic Coach of the Year and the 2006 National Coach of the Year. "It's a very formidable, powerful, tough field. We aren't pressure-free, because you want to perform your best on that stage."
By simply making that stage, Princeton has turned some heads this weekend. One day after knocking off No. 5 Michigan in its opening heat, the Tigers faced a semifinal that included such powers as No. 2 Cal, No. 7 Michigan State and the reigning NCAA champion, No. 3 Yale. Through 500 meters, Princeton trailed the trio of boats; through 1000 meters, Princeton remained in fourth, although USC had replaced Michigan State in third place.
The second half of the race would belong to Princeton. California easily left the pack to win the semifinal in 6:12.87, but with five boats vying for two spots, nobody could stay with the Tigers. Princeton's third split (from the 1000-meter mark to the 1500-meter mark) was 1:35.65; Yale, USC, Michigan State and Ohio State each had splits of more than 1:38 over the same stretch. That put Princeton in second with 500 meters remaining, and it kept that spot with a split of 1:34.69. One year after Dauphiny felt Princeton needed improvements in its final sprint, the Tigers used the final 500 meters to hold off the rest of the field and place second in the semifinal.
"The first two days have been great," Dauphiny said. "The team has been mature in its approach. I'm extremely proud of the whole program. With the ups and downs we've had this season, I'm just very proud of the fight we have shown. In some sense, we just needed more time to come together."
The last two weeks have been very important for Princeton. The stretch began on May 2, when the Tigers knocked off 2008 Eastern champion Brown to claim the final spot on the medal stand at the EAWRC championships. Since then, a roster that is finally healthy and rowing together has gotten stronger with the mission of getting back into the NCAA final. The V8+ squad of (stroke) Sarah Hendershot, (7) Michaela Strand, (6) Alison Fishman, (5) Lauren Wilkinson, (4) Phoebe White, (3) Ashton Brown, (2) Emily Reynolds, (bow) Annie Gayman and (cox) Ariel Frost accomplished that goal Saturday morning and are now 2,000 meters away from one more trip to the medal stand.
Dauphiny's pride was reflected in more than just the first varsity boat. One day after racing twice, including the afternoon repechage, the second varsity nearly made a dramatic run to its own grand final. A tough opening 500 meters put the Tigers in fifth place, but Princeton used the middle 1000 to gain more than three seconds on third-place California. Those two schools would battle for the final spot in the grand final, and Cal would hold on by less than one second. Princeton finished only 3.5 seconds behind Stanford, which won the race in 6:27.08, and will race in the petite final from the third lane.
Princeton's Sunday schedule will begin at 9:45 a.m., when the fours race in the fourth lane of the third-level final. At 10:45, the second varsity will race from the third lane in the petite final, and the varsity eight will row in the fifth lane in the 11:45 grand final.
