|
Web
Exclusives: From the Cheap Seats July
4, 2001: By Matt Golden '94 It wasn't supposed to go like this. Not even close. This was supposed to be the year Princeton got a mouthful of losing. After watching the football team stumble through another 3-and-7 season and after waving bye-bye to hoops coach Bill Carmody and baseball/basketball star Chris Young '02, it seemed that Tiger fans should have been preparing for the worst. But instead, what they got was something great -- another record-setting year (the second in a row) in which the Tigers brought 14 Ivy titles back to Old Nassau. That was good enough to rank Princeton 24th nationally among NCAA Division 1 athletic departments in the Sears Directors' Cup standings. This is the second time that Princeton cracked the top 25 in the standings (the first time was in 1998). The standings are based on performance in postseason championship events and are compiled by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. No other nonscholarship school has ever finished in the top 25. A strong spring catapulted the Tigers back among the nation's elite athletic programs. Ivy championships from the baseball team, the men's and women's lacrosse teams, the women's water polo team, and the men's and women's golf teams plus strong NCAA tournaments by the baseball team and both lacrosse teams were critical to Princeton's late surge. This award puts a cap on a remarkable year for the athletic department that was filled with memorable moments. Here are my top five: 5. Football crushes Brown -- Freshman QB Dave Splithoff passes for 289 yards and three touchdowns in pacing the Tigers to a rout of the defending Ivy champs. Splithoff's emergence brings excitement back to Princeton football. 4. Oh brother, a 3-peat! -- David Yik '03 follows in older brother Peter '00's shoes by winning the individual national title in men's squash. On the women's side, Julia Beaver '01 stakes her claim as the sport's greatest ever by capturing her third individual crown. 3. Fleet feet -- Olympian Marion Jones burns up the track at Weaver Stadium during a Golden Spike Tour event on May 12. 2. Memorial Day -- The Tierneys, father and sons, celebrate after upsetting Syracuse for Princeton's sixth national championship in men's lacrosse since 1992. For fans, the double-overtime win stirs memories of the Tigers' first title -- a triple-overtime thriller against the Orangemen. 1. Hoops Heaven -- Coach John Thompson '88 and center Nate Walton '01 cut down the Jadwin Gym nets after whipping Penn to secure an unlikely Ivy title and a return to the NCAA tournament. Matt Golden is PAW's sports editor, and you can reach him at golden2@erols.com
|
