Highlights
• Princeton recorded its
second undefeated season (9-0) in the last three years.
• The Tigers won the EARC championship for the third time in
the last five years. The win gave Princeton the 1999 Ivy
League crown.
• Princeton broke the regatta record, but finished second in
the IRA championship, behind national champion California.
• Sophomore Craig Perry was named Academic All-Ivy.
After an 8-1 record and a
national championship in 1998, what could the men's heavyweight crew do for an encore. More importantly, how would head coach Curtis Jordan fill the boat that had been depleted by graduation. Jordan did what he does best — put his eight top guys in a boat and led them to victory. The Tigers went undefeated for the second time in three seasons and picked up their third Eastern Sprints title in the last five years.
If you believe in home water advantage, then the Tigers had it, with four
of their six regular season regattas coming on Lake Carnegie. The 1999
campaign opened with the Tigers hosting the Navy on the final weekend of March. The Midshipmen were overmatched as Princeton won all five races by an average of 15.91 seconds. It was like instant replay the next weekend as the Tigers swept all five races on the Raritan River in New Brunswick, defeating Rutgers by more than 15 seconds with a winning time
of 6:04.8 in the first varsity race.
Despite a strong tailwind and choppy waters,
Princeton kept rolling with victories over Pennsylvania and Columbia on
the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. The Tigers won the Childs Cup for the sixth consecutive year with a time of 5:18.2. Seven days later Princeton returned to familiar territory as it hosted Harvard and MIT. The Tigers snapped Harvard's seven-regatta winning streak and avenged 1998's heartbreaking loss to capture their 12th Compton Cup with a 7.5 second victory. Princeton crossed the finish line first in three of the five races, with the Crimson winning the two freshman races.
The next week brought Ivy opponents Cornell and Yale to Lake Carnegie.
Victory was not a problem for the Tigers as they edged Yale by nearly 16
seconds. Princeton also won the second and third varsity events. For the season finale, the Brown Bears came to Princeton. Both teams remained even through the first portion of the race, but the Tigers dominated the middle 1000 meters for an open water lead down the stretch. The Orange and Black crossed the finish line one boat length ahead of Brown with a winning time of 5:53.8.
After a week off, the Tigers headed to Worchester, Mass., for the annual
Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges Sprints championship. Princeton
finished first in all three varsity races, winning
the title and its fifth consecutive Rowe Cup for the most overall points. The
victory gave Princeton its third-ever Ivy League crown, with the nine members
earning first-team All-Ivy honors.
Memorial Day weekend, the weekend that every Princeton rower trains and
prepares for, packed just as much excitement into three days as possible as the Tigers competed in the Intercollegiate Rowing Association championships in Camden, N.J. The Tigers easily won their opening heat before a close third-place finish in the semifinal sent Princeton to the national championship grand final for a showdown with California, the No. 1 team in the nation.
The defending champion, Princeton broke the IRA record with a time of
5:26.3. Unfortunately for the Tigers, the Golden Bears bettered that mark by three seconds. California took the early lead and had
open water over Princeton with 500 meters remaining before the Tigers made a
surge to cut the lead to only a couple of seats. Cal used a final boost to win in a record-setting time of 5:23.6.
1999 Results
9-0 overall, 6-0 Ivy
3/27 1. Princeton 6:18.40 2. Navy 6:43.80 4/3 1. Princeton 6:04.80 2. Rutgers 6:20.40 4/10 1. Princeton 5:18.20 2. Penn 5:25.80 3. Columbia 5:37.00 4/17 1. Princeton 5:50.70 2. Harvard 5:58.20 3. MIT 6:24.70 4/24 1. Princeton 6:21.30 2. Yale 6:37.10 3. Cornell 6:59.90 5/1 1. Princeton 5:53.80 2. Brown 5:57.60 5/9 EARC Regatta # Grand Final 1. Princeton 5:42.10 2. Brown 5:46.99 3. Pennsylvania 5:48.91 5/31 IRA Regatta $ Grand Final 1. California 5:23.60 2. Princeton 5:26.30 3. Washington 5:28.00
# at Worcester, Mass.
$ at Camden, N.J.
