TB Loves The ’90s

The No. 5 athletes of the decade in the goprincetontigers.com countdown are Will Venable of basketball and baseball and Theresa Sherry of lacrosse and soccer.

The remaining schedule has the No. 4 picks announced tomorrow and then the top 3 rolled out in the beginning of next week, with the No. 1 selections on Dec. 30.

Both of the No. 5 picks are currently "working" in California, as Venable is an outfielder with the San Diego Padres and Sherry is the head women's lacrosse coach at Cal. TigerBlog remembers Venable for being unstoppable in basketball, especially against the better teams, and for some monstrous home runs that he launched.

TB remembers Sherry for the clutch goal she scored in overtime to win the 2003 NCAA championship in the Carrier Dome against Virginia and how she would sing the national anthem before home games in both sports.

Last week, TigerBlog asked the question of who would be the Princeton athletics Coach of the Decade, and some of the comments posted indicate that TB's choice of men's hockey coach Guy Gadowsky wasn't agreed with universally.

Today's question is a variation of the "decade review" theme: Who would have been the Top 10 athletes of the 1990s?

TB did this using the same rules as the ones for this countdown. An athlete had to play at least two years in the 1990s, unless it was an active athlete in 1999, who then had to play three years in the 1990s.

What TB found when he looked back was somewhat surprising. In fact, it might just be that the 1990s produced more great athletes at Princeton than any other decade.

Let's start with the women.

TB's Top 10:
1. Amy E. MacFarlane (field hockey/lacrosse)
2. Lisa Rebane (field hockey/lacrosse)
3. Cristi Samaras (lacrosse)
4. Jen Babik (field hockey/softball)
5. Mollie Marcoux (soccer/ice hockey)
6. Nicole Harrison (track and field)
7. Grace Cornelius (swimming)
8. Kirsty Hale (field hockey)
9. Mandy Pfeiffer (hockey/softball)
10. Kim Simons (field hockey/lacrosse)

What leaps out at you from this list? How about six two-sport athletes? This, in TigerBlog's mind, speaks to how different the culture was for female athletes when the college athletes of the 1990s were little girls. With fewer opportunities, the better athletes were able to take up spots on multiple teams growing up. Today, the pressure is to specialize at a very early age, and the long-normal double of field hockey and lacrosse is something that happens less and less.

As for the list itself, it's a pretty strong group with some of the greatest female athletes in Princeton history. MacFarlane, the No. 1 selection, was one of the best field hockey players in the world, and she remains (for the next two years at least) the only field hockey player ever to be a four-time first-team All-Ivy pick.

And the others? Babik was a Rhodes' Scholar. Rebane was the Ivy League field hockey Player of the Year - and was a better lacrosse player (she was Ivy Player of the Year in that sport too). Samaras destroyed the women's lacrosse record book. Marcoux and Pfeiffer could play any sport. Harrison and Cornelius were All-Americas.

And the men? That's where it gets outrageous.

Apologies to great athletes like Ugonna Ikpeowo (track), Chris Massey (lacrosse), Dennis Norman (football/track), Justin Tortolani (lacrosse), Darrell Oliveira (football), Mitch Henderson (basketball), Gabe Lewullis (basketball), Peter Yik (squash), Josh Sims (lacrosse), Reed Cordish (tennis), James Mastaglio (basketball) and many others who didn't quite make the final cut.

So how about these 10?:
Chris Young (basketball/baseball)
Bill Burke (track)
David Patterson (football)
Jon Hess (lacrosse)
David Morrow (lacrosse)
John Mack (track)
Jesse Marsch (soccer)
Michael Lerch (football)
Joe Thieman (soccer)
Sydney Johnson (basketball)

Pretty good group, no? Well, then consider this fact: None of those 10 are in the actual Top 10.

For the Top 10, TigerBlog came up with this:

1. Jesse Hubbard (lacrosse)
2. Kit Mueller (basketball)
3. Keith Elias (football)
4. Kevin Lowe (lacrosse)
5. Steve Goodrich (basketball)
6. Chris Ahrens (crew)
7. Scott Bacigalupo (lacrosse)
8. Brian Earl (basketball)
9. Sean Jackson (basketball)
10. Jeff Halpern (hockey)

How ridiculous is that?