"The crew is a bunch of really intense athletes," says Don Fornes '95,
a member of the 1995 men's national runner-up heavyweight boat. "No one is
concerned with being a star, just being his or her best."
Rowing at Princeton
The Class of 1887 Boathouse on the shore of Lake Carnegie holds "as happy a family as there is," according
to men's heavyweight crew coach Curtis Jordan. That "family" includes the
four components of Princeton's crew: the heavyweight men's crew, the
lightweight men's crew, the women's open crew and the women's lightweight crew. Each
of those crews also has a freshman team, bringing the number of rowers in the
program to nearly 200 students altogether.
"There's a very friendly atmosphere in the boathouse; people work together," says Danika Harris '95, a world champion and member of the Tigers' 1994 and 1995 women's national championship teams. "At other schools there are politics of various kinds. It might be animosity between the men's and women's teams or between the heavyweight and lightweight teams or competition for places in a varsity boat. Here, everyone respects one another."
The transformation of individual rowers into teams that beat a 2,000-meter course in under six minutes doesn't come easily.
"From September through November and from March through May, we row on the lake five or six days a week," says Jordan.
Winter training takes place in the boathouse, which has a 16-oar moving-water rowing tank, a workout room and dozens of rowing machines called ergometers, or "ergs." Boats, oars, weights and ergs are provided by the Princeton University Rowing Association, an alumni group that supports all aspects of the program equally.
During the winter the rowers use the ergs to compete against themselves
with the same zeal that they compete against other colleges in the spring.
"The crew is a bunch of really intense athletes," says Don Fornes '95,
a member of the 1995 men's national runner-up heavyweight boat. "No one is
concerned with being a star, just being his or her best."
Princeton's men row in the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) and the women in the Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges (EAWRC). Each squad has three boats (varsity, 2V and 3V) and two freshman boats.
As all of Princeton's coaches are quick to point out, much of the team's training is aimed at getting eight individual rowers in such sync that it's no longer a thought process.
One factor contributing to the general high spirit in the boathouse is that Princeton crew has a legacy of success. The 1990s have been a decade of crew dominance at Princeton, as the men's and women's varsity crews have combined for 10 national titles. In 1998 the heavyweight and lightweight men each won the national crown, and the lightweight men also went undefeated.
The women's open crew competed at the NCAA championships, while the second-year lightweight women's crew won the national crown.
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