Video(s) Of The Week: Princeton Tigers Strong on Home Course
This week's videos come to us from Carnegie Lake, where the Princeton open women took on Yale last weekend, while the lightweight men battled Penn and Georgetown. The women's varsity eights race saw the Tigers take an early lead, and endure several strong moves by a very talented Yale crew to record a wire-to-wire victory—dealing the Bulldogs their first loss of this young season, and keeping the Eisenberg Cup in Princeton for another year.
Not to be outdone, the Princeton lightweight men put on a show against Penn and Georgetown, moving away from the opposition in the second 500m and continuing to expand their lead all the way through the finish in dominant fashion. While the Quakers held on well early, it was the base speed and body rhythm (taking full advantage of significant horsepower on board) of the Tigers that saw them through to victory.
Also of note over the weekend was the Brown men's squad reclaiming the Dreissigacker Cup from Northeastern, defeating the Husky varsity eight by roughly seven seconds, and winning three of four races on the day (see the Brown Athletics site for a full write-up). SIRAs took over Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and again saw a change in the balance of power, with George Washington knocking off last year's winners, the FIT Panthers, by 1.7 seconds en route to a sweep of the frosh, JV, and varsity eight events, and Virginia claiming third overall in the men's varsity eight back of the two race leaders (click here for full SIRAs results). Meanwhile, at the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, Michigan and Ohio State both got the better of the Cavaliers in the varsity eight, and the Buckeyes matched that feat in the second varsity as well. While Virginia's depth was evident in the other boat categories, it appears that finding just the right mix at the top end will be the challenge once again on Rivanna Reservoir. Following their success against their Big Ten rivals, the Ohio State women's varsity eight was named Big Ten Boat of the Week.
There's much more racing on tap this coming weekend, not least of which will be the 103rd Cal-Washington Dual at Redwood Shores, featuring (on the men's side) the No. 1 Golden Bears versus the No. 2 Huskies in their first head-to-head racing of the year (here's a video of the men's varsity eight race from 2013—with a painful soundtrack—via UW Athletics). The Cal women are currently ranked No. 2 according to the most recent CRCA coaches' poll, while Washington is tied for seventh overall with Michigan. Keep an eye on our Twitter and Instagram feeds through the weekend to stay up to the minute on all the action from Northern California.
As if that weren't enough, NSR I kicks off today—for full results from Mercer Lake, click here.
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-RR