LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT: The Princeton University men’s lightweight varsity eight enjoy the moment after finishing second in their grand final last Sunday at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships on Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif. The top boat’s silver medal performance helped the Tigers finish second in the team standings at the regatta. (Photo by Row2K, provided courtesy of Princeton Athletics)
By Bill Alden
While things got hectic with the flood of activities as the school year wrapped up, the Princeton University men’s lightweight rowers were able to keep sharp as they prepared for the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championships.
“It is such a quick turnaround from Eastern Sprints and then you have seniors doing graduation and reunions are going on,” said Princeton first-year head coach Matt Smith. “The goal is to maintain and refine and improve some stuff. The energy was high, everybody remained healthy. We were able to accomplish some good training. Once the seniors graduated on Tuesday, we were on the airplane flying out there.”
The Tigers ended up flying high at the IRA regatta, which took place on Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif., placing second overall in the team standings at the event.
“At the Eastern Sprints to put all of the eights in the top three positions was pretty awesome,” said Smith. “To come away with the team trophy, the Jope Cup, was amazing. Then to go into the IRA and keep that momentum going is no easy task.”
Princeton gained momentum on Friday as it opened the competition with strong showings across the board.
“The two eights won their heats in the morning which was great,” said Smith. “That does come off that block of training, that was the first full 2K they had done since the Eastern Sprints. It was able to let them shake the cobwebs off and get used to being out there. Our coxed four did an awesome job, they had two races that day with their time trial and their semifinal. The coxed four came away from that day putting themselves in the medal final. By the end of Friday, we had all three boats racing for the medals.”
In its grand final on Saturday, the coxed four just missed out on a medal as it placed fourth. The Tigers clocked a time of 6:43.460 over the 2,000-meter course with Mercyhurst taking the bronze in 6:42.410. Penn won the race in a time of 6:40.120.
“It was a really tight race, a few teams jumped them off the start but they we’re able to hang in there and have a great race,” said Smith. “It was a big improvement from last year when they weren’t in the A final. It was awesome for them to get the train rolling. It was really close, it came down to a very slim margin. They are all returners, they are all underclassmen. Those five athletes will all be back next year, that is the goal.”
The varsity eight found itself in a tight race in the grand final on Sunday as it rallied over the last half of the race but just missed out on gold as it took second to Harvard. The Crimson clocked a winning time of 5:47.229 with the hard-charging Tigers coming in at 5:49.214.
“It is a really, really good Harvard crew, they had a great race,” said Smith. “For us, our guys stuck to their guns, there were some really, really good challenges with Penn and Dartmouth in there but the guys were able to execute in the middle. If you look at the times, they actually had the fastest last 1,000 of everybody. Harvard had a really great first 1,000 that built them a buffer. Our varsity had an amazing second 1,000 to try to claw back in it and closed the margin but just not enough. They had a disappointing IRA last year in the final to not be on the podium. To come into the IRA ranked second and to leave ranked second, we did a good job.”
The 2V also made the podium as it finished third in 5:58.238 with Harvard taking first in 5:53.763 and Penn coming in second at 5:55.245.
“They were bummed to not place higher but again Liam Dooley who was in there as one of our captains, that was his first IRA medal,” said Smith. “That is what I was telling those guys. These are very hard-earned medals. Hey it is OK to be disappointed but also understand that we really worked hard and put ourselves in a great position.”
Having moved up to second place in the team standings after placing fourth last year, the progress made by the Tigers this season put themselves in position to contend for the title.
“The standards of the group kept raising throughout the spring,” said Smith, whose team ended the regatta with 48 points while Harvard tallied 54 to win the title. “In October, if you had said OK guys, this is how everything is going to finish back they would have been like that is awesome, we will take it. Then when your standards continue to raise, you are like, ‘Oh man, we came up just a little bit short of really spectacular things.’ They were pumped and I think for guys that have been here over their four years they understand how those medals are hard-earned. The league is so tight.”
Smith credited the squad’s seniors with setting a high standard. “It is a big senior class, we have 16 seniors,” said Smith. “A lot of them were in the 3V, 4V. From the V8 to 4V, they brought some really good energy to the team. We were all going to have to try different stuff, they were going to have to trust what I am saying and I was going to have trust what they were doing. That allowed us to get into the spring season with everybody putting the team first and making the goal how fast can we make all of our boats.”
With only five seniors in the group of the 25 who represented Princeton at the IRA regatta, the future looks bright for the squad.
“The guys did great, the underclassmen from top to bottom got a taste of it and understand how hard it is,” said Smith. “Hopefully they left the IRA and this season and understand OK, here are the areas that we can improve upon and try to do better. Our two new captains next year are Sam Scowen and Bach Ryan. We will take a week or so and then we will all connect and start thinking about next season.”
For Smith, his first season at the helm of the program turned out to be a great experience.
“It was awesome; credit to the athletes for welcoming me into the squad and being open-minded to change,” said Smith. “We will take a good look and see hey OK what do we feel what our strengths are with next year’s group and what are weaknesses or areas of improvement will be and then we will tweak it from there.”