The forecast for one week from today in Princeton is for a high of 84, a low of 61 and a slight chance of showers.
Every now and then, TigerBlog thinks of an idea for a particular day and then looks back a year or two or so ago to see if he'd written the same thing before. He figures that if he can't remember then nobody else would either, though he likes to see.
And here it is, one week before the Gary Walters ’67 Princeton Varsity Club Awards Banquet, and TigerBlog figured he'd check out the weather forecast. And so he looked back to last year, and lo and behold, look what he found:
TigerBlog likes to say that the average temperature of the annual senior
awards banquet is 70, since it seems like it's either 90 or 50. He hadn't looked at the 10-day forecast for Princeton until just now,
and he chuckled when he saw that the forecast for the banquet one week
from today is for a high of 93. For the record, TigerBlog will take the
under on that one and is predicting a pleasant, comfortable evening.
That was exactly 52 weeks ago. Interesting.
There is one week until the 19th banquet. There aren't too many people who have been to all of the first 18, and TigerBlog is among them - he wasn't at the first, which was a small gathering held in Jadwin Gym.
He's been to every one since, and he knows that the weather has always been a big topic of conversation. As TB thinks back, though, there's only been one time where the weather really wiped out the evening, forcing the awards to be given the following afternoon in Jadwin Gym after a thunderstorm came tearing through the Grad College and wouldn't leave.
Each year when the banquet roles around, TigerBlog is amazed that another year has come and gone. It's not different this time.
Right now, with a week to go, there are countless details that need to be finalized. They will be. They always are.
The night will run smoothly. It always does. There's a lot that goes into this banquet, from a lot of people who work here. But it always runs smoothly.
Hey, even the weather will cooperate.
If it really is a high of 84 and a low of 61, then the evening at the Grad College could be pretty nice. And if it's really 90? It'll still be a nice night.
The banquet is a celebration of the four years for the graduating class. The Class of 2016 will have a lot to celebrate.
Princeton has won 43 Ivy League championships in the last four years. In the last two years alone, Princeton has won 27 league titles, with 21 different teams with at least one.
The banquet last year was the first for which Princeton announced finalists for its top athletic awards, the Roper Trophy and the Von Kienbusch Award. It worked out really well, with the winner announced at the banquet.
This year's nominees were announced the last two days.
The five Roper Trophy - top senior male athlete - nominees are rower Martin Barakso, pole valuter Adam Bragg, swimmer Teo D'Alessandro, baseball player Danny Hoy and soccer player Thomas Sanner. You can read their accomplishments HERE.
The six von Kienbusch Award nominees are lacrosse player Liz Bannantine, runner Cecilia Barowski, basketball player Michelle Miller, volleyball player Kendall Peterkin, fencer Gracie Stone and basketball player Alex Wheatley. Their accomplishments are HERE.
Oh, and by the way, in case you haven't thought about the 2017 von Kienbusch field, it's an incredible group. Start with water polo player Ashleigh Johnson, hammer thrower Julia Ratcliffe, fencer Kat Holmes - all three have been out this year training for the Olympics.
To that you can add soccer player Tyler Lussi, hockey player Kelsey Koelzer, lacrosse players Olivia Hompe and Ellie DeGarmo (named a first-team All-America yesterday) and probably some others that TB isn't thinking about off the top of his head.
You're talking about some of the greatest women athletes Princeton has ever had.
Ah, but that's for 2017. It'll be here soon enough.
This is still 2016. A week from the banquet.
There's more to the banquet than just the top senior athlete awards. There are also other awards, and recipients this year include such notables as John Thompson III and Clayton Marsh.
As always, it'll start with the 90-minute cocktail hour. And it'll end with the senior-athlete video.
It's gone from a small beginning in Jadwin Gym to what it has become, which is one of the signature events on the Princeton campus each year.
And this year, the weather will be good. Or it won't.
Either way, the banquet will still be great.
Thursday, May 19, 2016
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
The Best Goal Ever, Or Second-Best Of The Weekend
Brody Merrill's 85-yard goal against Rochester
Olivia Hompe's last-second goal against UMass
TigerBlog isn't sure what the best lacrosse play he saw last weekend was.
He can say three things with total certainty though:
1) it wasn't in one of the eight NCAA men's games he saw
2) he hasn't seen too many better plays
3) if it happened at the end of a championship game, it would go down as one of the greatest plays ever
The two candidates are Brody Merrill's 85-yard shot in a Major League Lacrosse game and Olivia Hompe's buzzer-beater to force overtime for Princeton's women in their NCAA opener.
Let's start with Merrill's shot.
TigerBlog was on Game 4 of the first day of the NCAA tournament last Saturday, and Notre Dame was comfortably ahead of Air Force. It had been a long day of watching college lacrosse on TV - and his phone, for the first game, between Maryland and Quinnipiac, while he was at the Ivy League baseball championship series.
So, he figured, he could see what else was on. And what did he find?
Major League Lacrosse. How lucky was he?
Anyway, he went from the college game to the pro game, between the Rochester Rattlers and the Boston Cannons. The matchup meant three Princeton alums were in the game - Boston goalie Tyler Fiorito, Boston defenseman Chad Wiedmaier and Rochester middie Kip Orban.
By the way, Boston's next game is against the Ohio Machine, with two other Princeton alums, Tom Schreiber and Mike MacDonald. Schreiber leads MLL with 15 assists; no other player has more than 10. Fiorito is again among the league leaders in goals-against and save percentage.
Anyway, as Air Force-Notre Dame wasn't that close, TB stayed with Rochester-Boston. He's sort of glad he did.
As it turned out, Rochester led by two with a little over a minute to play and possession of the ball. There is a 60-second clock in MLL, and the Rattlers took it all the way down before throwing it into the corner behind the goal. There were 3.3 seconds to go.
As a lacrosse field is 110 yards x 60 yards and the goal is 15 yards from the end line, Boston now had to go 85 yards. On the other hand, there's also a two-point shot in the league, so the game was not out of reach, even if it seemed completely implausible that Boston could make it happen.
Merrill, who played collegiately at Georgetown and is the best longstick midfielder TigerBlog has ever seen, picked the ball up and winged it down the field. By the time the camera caught up to it, the ball was in the goal. And the Rochester goalie was there the whole time.
How is that even possible? If TigerBlog gave Merrill 100 chances to do it again, even without the goalie, how many times would he succeed?
If that had been the end of an NCAA men's championship game (one-goal game, forcing OT), it would be universally called the greatest play ever.
It might have been the best play of the weekend, though. Olivia Hompe's goal against UMass at the end of regulation might have been better.
Princeton and UMass played a great game in the opening round of the NCAA tournament last Friday in Ithaca, with eight ties and nine lead changes. It was tied into the final minute when UMass scored what figured to be the winning goal with 14.6 seconds to play.
Princeton, though, wasn't done.
Amanda Leavell won the draw and was fouled, forcing a restart with 8.3 seconds left. After a Princeton timeout, Leavell threw it to Eileen McDonald, who lofted the ball towards the goal.
TigerBlog, watching the videostream, thought for a minute that McDonald's throw had a chance to go in on its own. Instead, Hompe caught it and scored, with 0.8 seconds left.
A few things on Hompe's play:
1) just catching the ball in the first play was an incredible play
2) it's possibly that the goalie was thinking that McDonald's pass was headed to the goal and had to adjust once Hompe caught it
3) TB isn't sure how Hompe kept her balance
4) her shot was perfect
5) her reaction was better
There is a one big difference between Merrill's goal and Hompe's goal. Both were incredible. Both forced overtime.
Only Merrill's team won. Princeton fell 13-12 to UMass, ending its season. UMass then turned around and beat Cornell in the second round to earn a quarterfinal date with Maryland this weekend.
Hompe went on to be named first-team all-region for the second time, following up on her second unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection. She had a team-best 59 points this season, with 47 goals and 12 assists.
She will enter her senior year 11th all-time at Princeton with 175 career points, including 123 goals.
TigerBlog hasn't seen them all, but his sense is that none of them were more amazing than the one with 0.8 seconds left against UMass.
It might have been the best single goal he's ever seen.
Or maybe just the second-best one from the weekend.
Olivia Hompe's last-second goal against UMass
TigerBlog isn't sure what the best lacrosse play he saw last weekend was.
He can say three things with total certainty though:
1) it wasn't in one of the eight NCAA men's games he saw
2) he hasn't seen too many better plays
3) if it happened at the end of a championship game, it would go down as one of the greatest plays ever
The two candidates are Brody Merrill's 85-yard shot in a Major League Lacrosse game and Olivia Hompe's buzzer-beater to force overtime for Princeton's women in their NCAA opener.
Let's start with Merrill's shot.
TigerBlog was on Game 4 of the first day of the NCAA tournament last Saturday, and Notre Dame was comfortably ahead of Air Force. It had been a long day of watching college lacrosse on TV - and his phone, for the first game, between Maryland and Quinnipiac, while he was at the Ivy League baseball championship series.
So, he figured, he could see what else was on. And what did he find?
Major League Lacrosse. How lucky was he?
Anyway, he went from the college game to the pro game, between the Rochester Rattlers and the Boston Cannons. The matchup meant three Princeton alums were in the game - Boston goalie Tyler Fiorito, Boston defenseman Chad Wiedmaier and Rochester middie Kip Orban.
By the way, Boston's next game is against the Ohio Machine, with two other Princeton alums, Tom Schreiber and Mike MacDonald. Schreiber leads MLL with 15 assists; no other player has more than 10. Fiorito is again among the league leaders in goals-against and save percentage.
Anyway, as Air Force-Notre Dame wasn't that close, TB stayed with Rochester-Boston. He's sort of glad he did.
As it turned out, Rochester led by two with a little over a minute to play and possession of the ball. There is a 60-second clock in MLL, and the Rattlers took it all the way down before throwing it into the corner behind the goal. There were 3.3 seconds to go.
As a lacrosse field is 110 yards x 60 yards and the goal is 15 yards from the end line, Boston now had to go 85 yards. On the other hand, there's also a two-point shot in the league, so the game was not out of reach, even if it seemed completely implausible that Boston could make it happen.
Merrill, who played collegiately at Georgetown and is the best longstick midfielder TigerBlog has ever seen, picked the ball up and winged it down the field. By the time the camera caught up to it, the ball was in the goal. And the Rochester goalie was there the whole time.
How is that even possible? If TigerBlog gave Merrill 100 chances to do it again, even without the goalie, how many times would he succeed?
If that had been the end of an NCAA men's championship game (one-goal game, forcing OT), it would be universally called the greatest play ever.
It might have been the best play of the weekend, though. Olivia Hompe's goal against UMass at the end of regulation might have been better.
Princeton and UMass played a great game in the opening round of the NCAA tournament last Friday in Ithaca, with eight ties and nine lead changes. It was tied into the final minute when UMass scored what figured to be the winning goal with 14.6 seconds to play.
Princeton, though, wasn't done.
Amanda Leavell won the draw and was fouled, forcing a restart with 8.3 seconds left. After a Princeton timeout, Leavell threw it to Eileen McDonald, who lofted the ball towards the goal.
TigerBlog, watching the videostream, thought for a minute that McDonald's throw had a chance to go in on its own. Instead, Hompe caught it and scored, with 0.8 seconds left.
A few things on Hompe's play:
1) just catching the ball in the first play was an incredible play
2) it's possibly that the goalie was thinking that McDonald's pass was headed to the goal and had to adjust once Hompe caught it
3) TB isn't sure how Hompe kept her balance
4) her shot was perfect
5) her reaction was better
There is a one big difference between Merrill's goal and Hompe's goal. Both were incredible. Both forced overtime.
Only Merrill's team won. Princeton fell 13-12 to UMass, ending its season. UMass then turned around and beat Cornell in the second round to earn a quarterfinal date with Maryland this weekend.
Hompe went on to be named first-team all-region for the second time, following up on her second unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection. She had a team-best 59 points this season, with 47 goals and 12 assists.
She will enter her senior year 11th all-time at Princeton with 175 career points, including 123 goals.
TigerBlog hasn't seen them all, but his sense is that none of them were more amazing than the one with 0.8 seconds left against UMass.
It might have been the best single goal he's ever seen.
Or maybe just the second-best one from the weekend.
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
Winning Women
The last four Ivy League championships of the 2015-16 academic year were handed out this past Sunday.
Princeton won baseball and open rowing. Yale won men's lightweight and heavyweight rowing.
And with those, all 33 Ivy League titles for the academic year of 2015-16 had been awarded. As TigerBlog mentioned yesterday, it was a seriously good year for Princeton Athletics.
The collective Tigers won 14 Ivy championships, which matches the second-best total in league history.
There have been six times in the history of the Ivy League that a school has won at least 14 Ivy titles in an academic year. Harvard has done it twice, with 14 both times (2004-05, 2013-14), and this is the fourth time Princeton has done it.
The 2010-11 Tigers won a league-record 15 Ivy League championships. The 1999-2000 and 2000-01 Princeton teams won 14 each, and now the 2015-16 academic year joins that list.
This is also the 23rd time that Princeton has reached double figures in Ivy League championships in an academic year. The only other school to win at least 10 Ivy titles in an academic year is Harvard; the Crimson have done it nine times, including this year, with 10.
The competition Sunday also ended Ivy League unofficial all-sports points championship for this year. Princeton won for the 29th time in 30 years, with 208 points to 185.5 for second-place Harvard.
Schools earn points based on their finish in Ivy standings, with eight for first, seven for second, and so on. If fewer than eight schools have a sport, then the winner still gets eight points. Also, if there is a tie, then those points are split. In other words, if two teams tie for third, then they both get 5.5 in that sport.
The Ivy League has 33 official sports that compete for a league title. There are 17 for men and 16 for women.
There are two men's rowing championships (heavyweight and lightweight) and only one women's (open), which explains the difference in the total number of titles available. Women compete in field hockey and men compete in football. Ivy has a champion in women's volleyball but not men's volleyball. Men have wrestling. Every other sport has a men's champion and a women's champion.
Princeton's 2015-16 academic year might have been one off the overall record, but it was historic in one sense. Princeton's women's teams combined for 10 of the 14 championships, marking the first time in Ivy League history that one school has reached double figures in one gender.
The year started with another first - Princeton swept the four Ivy League titles for women, which was the first time in league history that a team had won all of the championships available for one gender.
Even beyond the 10 championships, Princeton had no women's team all year who finished in the bottom half of the league in any sport. That too is incredible.
Princeton had 10 Ivy League women's champions and three more who finished second. There were two third-place finishes and one fourth-place finish.
And the team that finished in fourth was women's indoor track and field, and the Tigers won cross country and bounced back to finish second outdoors.
Of the three teams who finished second, two of them - women's swimming and diving and women's basketball - won a year ago.
Princeton has long had a serious commitment to women's athletics. It dates back basically to the earliest days of women at Princeton, back to the early 1970s.
Those pioneers of women's athletics here really set the stage for all of the success that has followed. TigerBlog has met many of them and heard them tell the stories of what it was like when women - and women's athletics - were so new to Princeton.
They were, for instance, called "girls," and not "women." They had substandard practice equipment and access to facilities only when the men weren't using them.
Athletic medicine? Strength and conditioning? Marketing and communications? The women were given the scraps.
Despite that women's athletics here grew quickly. And it was because of those earliest women athletes, and the coaches and administrators who believed in them and encouraged them.
By the 1979-80 season, the Ivy League awarded 13 championships for women - and Princeton won five of them.
Today Princeton is a model for women's athletics, and for an institutional commitment to equity and excellence. And it shows.
Clearly, the results speak for themselves. It's not easy to do what has just been done.
TigerBlog has long been in awe of the success of Princeton's women's athletes.
This year, that's more true that ever.
Princeton won baseball and open rowing. Yale won men's lightweight and heavyweight rowing.
And with those, all 33 Ivy League titles for the academic year of 2015-16 had been awarded. As TigerBlog mentioned yesterday, it was a seriously good year for Princeton Athletics.
The collective Tigers won 14 Ivy championships, which matches the second-best total in league history.
There have been six times in the history of the Ivy League that a school has won at least 14 Ivy titles in an academic year. Harvard has done it twice, with 14 both times (2004-05, 2013-14), and this is the fourth time Princeton has done it.
The 2010-11 Tigers won a league-record 15 Ivy League championships. The 1999-2000 and 2000-01 Princeton teams won 14 each, and now the 2015-16 academic year joins that list.
This is also the 23rd time that Princeton has reached double figures in Ivy League championships in an academic year. The only other school to win at least 10 Ivy titles in an academic year is Harvard; the Crimson have done it nine times, including this year, with 10.
The competition Sunday also ended Ivy League unofficial all-sports points championship for this year. Princeton won for the 29th time in 30 years, with 208 points to 185.5 for second-place Harvard.
Schools earn points based on their finish in Ivy standings, with eight for first, seven for second, and so on. If fewer than eight schools have a sport, then the winner still gets eight points. Also, if there is a tie, then those points are split. In other words, if two teams tie for third, then they both get 5.5 in that sport.
The Ivy League has 33 official sports that compete for a league title. There are 17 for men and 16 for women.
There are two men's rowing championships (heavyweight and lightweight) and only one women's (open), which explains the difference in the total number of titles available. Women compete in field hockey and men compete in football. Ivy has a champion in women's volleyball but not men's volleyball. Men have wrestling. Every other sport has a men's champion and a women's champion.
Princeton's 2015-16 academic year might have been one off the overall record, but it was historic in one sense. Princeton's women's teams combined for 10 of the 14 championships, marking the first time in Ivy League history that one school has reached double figures in one gender.
The year started with another first - Princeton swept the four Ivy League titles for women, which was the first time in league history that a team had won all of the championships available for one gender.
Even beyond the 10 championships, Princeton had no women's team all year who finished in the bottom half of the league in any sport. That too is incredible.
Princeton had 10 Ivy League women's champions and three more who finished second. There were two third-place finishes and one fourth-place finish.
And the team that finished in fourth was women's indoor track and field, and the Tigers won cross country and bounced back to finish second outdoors.
Of the three teams who finished second, two of them - women's swimming and diving and women's basketball - won a year ago.
Princeton has long had a serious commitment to women's athletics. It dates back basically to the earliest days of women at Princeton, back to the early 1970s.
Those pioneers of women's athletics here really set the stage for all of the success that has followed. TigerBlog has met many of them and heard them tell the stories of what it was like when women - and women's athletics - were so new to Princeton.
They were, for instance, called "girls," and not "women." They had substandard practice equipment and access to facilities only when the men weren't using them.
Athletic medicine? Strength and conditioning? Marketing and communications? The women were given the scraps.
Despite that women's athletics here grew quickly. And it was because of those earliest women athletes, and the coaches and administrators who believed in them and encouraged them.
By the 1979-80 season, the Ivy League awarded 13 championships for women - and Princeton won five of them.
Today Princeton is a model for women's athletics, and for an institutional commitment to equity and excellence. And it shows.
Clearly, the results speak for themselves. It's not easy to do what has just been done.
TigerBlog has long been in awe of the success of Princeton's women's athletes.
This year, that's more true that ever.
Monday, May 16, 2016
And Open Rowing And Baseball Make 14, Or 19, Or 21
If you thought the five straight walks Saturday made for a different kind of rally, that was nothing compared to what was to come.
The five straight walks came in Game 1 of the Ivy League baseball championship series. They were long forgotten by the bottom of the ninth of Game 3, when Princeton, shut out through eight innings, trailed by a run and were desperate for a baserunner.
That came in the form of a lead-off single.
And that was followed by:
* wild pitch
* walk
* hit batter
* hit batter
* strikeout
* wild pitch
Added all up, and it made it 2-1 Princeton, final. And that made Princeton the 2016 Ivy League champion.
The baseball title was the 14th of the year and the second yesterday. The 13th came from the women's open rowing team.
Princeton shocked top-ranked Brown to win the Ivy League women's open championship. The weather forced the schedule and location to be changed, to really, really early yesterday, with a 6 a.m. start.
You want to read a good story about it? Here is Craig Sachson's first two paragraphs from goprincetontigers.com:
They moved the Ivy League Championships from Mercer Lake to Lake Carnegie. They moved the Championships from the afternoon to the morning.
And then Princeton made a move more dramatic than either of those.
That's pretty good, right?
The whole story is HERE.
Anyway, here are Princeton's 14 Ivy League champions for 2015-16:
field hockey, women's soccer, women's cross-country, women's volleyball, men's fencing, women's fencing, men's swimming and diving, men's indoor track and field, women's hockey, women's lacrosse, women's tennis, baseball, softball, women's open rowing.
Beyond that, Princeton had seven other teams finish in second place in the league.
And even beyond that, of the 33 Princeton teams who compete for an Ivy League title, an incredible 19 have won at least one championship in the last two years. Add in both water polo teams, and that's 21 of Princeton's 38 teams who have won at least one championship in the last two years.
That's nuts, by the way.
Think about it. That's 19 of 33 Ivy sports, or 57.6%. And 21 of 38, which is 55.2%.
That's in two years, people.
For all that, perhaps the most unlikely winner is the baseball team.
Princeton had 11 Ivy League championship teams in 2014-15, but the baseball team wasn't one of them. No, Princeton went 7-32 a year ago, finishing 4-16 in the Ivy League.
That was a distant, distant memory this weekend, when Princeton hosted Yale at Clarke Field in the ILCS. And a wild weekend it would be.
It started before it ever started, when the weather forecast changed the format. Instead of two games Saturday and an if-necessary game Sunday, it instead became one game Saturday and the rest on Sunday.
The crowd Saturday might have been the largest in the history of Clarke Field. Certainly TigerBlog doesn't remember a bigger one.
Princeton trailed 6-5 into the eighth inning before the aforementioned five straight walks made it 7-6 Princeton. Yale then answered with two in the top of the ninth to win 8-7.
All that meant was that Princeton had to win two yesterday. So what that the Tigers were 0-3 against Yale on the year heading in. So what.
Chad Powers went seven strong innings in Game 2, and Princeton scored four in the second inning, which would be more than necessary in the 6-2 win.
And so it was winner take all.
Yale struck first, getting a run after three batters in the top of the first. That, though, would be it off of Cameron Mingo, who went all nine, allowing eight hits while striking out five.
When he walked off the mound after his 117th pitch, he and his team were down 1-0. Down to their last three outs.
From the time Yale scored in the first inning until Mingo got out of the top of the ninth, there had been 71 plate appearances without a run.
Still, in baseball, it's about getting the last three outs, and that is never, ever easy with a championship on the line.
Also in baseball, it's all about the "first." First out. First strike. First man on. Those things all change the dynamic of an inning.
And so it was in the bottom of the ninth yesterday.
The first man up was Danny Hoy, who ran the count to 3-1 and then lashed a single to left. Then it became nuts.
A wild pitch moved Hoy to second. Then Danny Baer walked. That brought up Zack Belski, who had driven in eight runs in one game earlier this year. Do you bunt? Hit and run? Swing away?
Belski squared to bunt and was nailed on the hand. The home plate umpire at first said no, but then the four umps got together - as Belski was trying to show them his hand - and ruled yes, it was an HBP.
So now the bases were loaded, with nobody out. So now what? A fly ball ties the game. A hit wins it.
How about another hit by pitch, this time Joseph Flynn. Tied, 1-1. Bases still loaded. Still nobody out.
Next, though, came a strikeout, bringing Andrew Christie to the plate, still with the bases loaded now with one out. A double play gets out of the inning. A fly ball wins it.
And so does a wild pitch. Baer sprinted across the plate, to a huge hug from Christie and a huge dog-pile from the team.
It was a great moment. This was a team that went from last to first in one year and then won that championship in dramatic fashion. Princeton scrapped to this championship.
Next up will be the NCAA tournament. The selections are still two weeks away, which will give Princeton a chance to celebrate and reflect on what it has accomplished.
Eventually the celebration slowed down enough for the trophy presentation. And then there were the Tigers, holding the Ivy League trophy. To the victors go the trophies, and Princeton has clearly won a lot of them in the last two years.
This one, though, was a little different, and maybe a little more special.
The five straight walks came in Game 1 of the Ivy League baseball championship series. They were long forgotten by the bottom of the ninth of Game 3, when Princeton, shut out through eight innings, trailed by a run and were desperate for a baserunner.
That came in the form of a lead-off single.
And that was followed by:
* wild pitch
* walk
* hit batter
* hit batter
* strikeout
* wild pitch
Added all up, and it made it 2-1 Princeton, final. And that made Princeton the 2016 Ivy League champion.
The baseball title was the 14th of the year and the second yesterday. The 13th came from the women's open rowing team.
Princeton shocked top-ranked Brown to win the Ivy League women's open championship. The weather forced the schedule and location to be changed, to really, really early yesterday, with a 6 a.m. start.
You want to read a good story about it? Here is Craig Sachson's first two paragraphs from goprincetontigers.com:
They moved the Ivy League Championships from Mercer Lake to Lake Carnegie. They moved the Championships from the afternoon to the morning.
And then Princeton made a move more dramatic than either of those.
That's pretty good, right?
The whole story is HERE.
Anyway, here are Princeton's 14 Ivy League champions for 2015-16:
field hockey, women's soccer, women's cross-country, women's volleyball, men's fencing, women's fencing, men's swimming and diving, men's indoor track and field, women's hockey, women's lacrosse, women's tennis, baseball, softball, women's open rowing.
Beyond that, Princeton had seven other teams finish in second place in the league.
And even beyond that, of the 33 Princeton teams who compete for an Ivy League title, an incredible 19 have won at least one championship in the last two years. Add in both water polo teams, and that's 21 of Princeton's 38 teams who have won at least one championship in the last two years.
That's nuts, by the way.
Think about it. That's 19 of 33 Ivy sports, or 57.6%. And 21 of 38, which is 55.2%.
That's in two years, people.
For all that, perhaps the most unlikely winner is the baseball team.
Princeton had 11 Ivy League championship teams in 2014-15, but the baseball team wasn't one of them. No, Princeton went 7-32 a year ago, finishing 4-16 in the Ivy League.
That was a distant, distant memory this weekend, when Princeton hosted Yale at Clarke Field in the ILCS. And a wild weekend it would be.
It started before it ever started, when the weather forecast changed the format. Instead of two games Saturday and an if-necessary game Sunday, it instead became one game Saturday and the rest on Sunday.
The crowd Saturday might have been the largest in the history of Clarke Field. Certainly TigerBlog doesn't remember a bigger one.
Princeton trailed 6-5 into the eighth inning before the aforementioned five straight walks made it 7-6 Princeton. Yale then answered with two in the top of the ninth to win 8-7.
All that meant was that Princeton had to win two yesterday. So what that the Tigers were 0-3 against Yale on the year heading in. So what.
Chad Powers went seven strong innings in Game 2, and Princeton scored four in the second inning, which would be more than necessary in the 6-2 win.
And so it was winner take all.
Yale struck first, getting a run after three batters in the top of the first. That, though, would be it off of Cameron Mingo, who went all nine, allowing eight hits while striking out five.
When he walked off the mound after his 117th pitch, he and his team were down 1-0. Down to their last three outs.
From the time Yale scored in the first inning until Mingo got out of the top of the ninth, there had been 71 plate appearances without a run.
Still, in baseball, it's about getting the last three outs, and that is never, ever easy with a championship on the line.
Also in baseball, it's all about the "first." First out. First strike. First man on. Those things all change the dynamic of an inning.
And so it was in the bottom of the ninth yesterday.
The first man up was Danny Hoy, who ran the count to 3-1 and then lashed a single to left. Then it became nuts.
A wild pitch moved Hoy to second. Then Danny Baer walked. That brought up Zack Belski, who had driven in eight runs in one game earlier this year. Do you bunt? Hit and run? Swing away?
Belski squared to bunt and was nailed on the hand. The home plate umpire at first said no, but then the four umps got together - as Belski was trying to show them his hand - and ruled yes, it was an HBP.
So now the bases were loaded, with nobody out. So now what? A fly ball ties the game. A hit wins it.
How about another hit by pitch, this time Joseph Flynn. Tied, 1-1. Bases still loaded. Still nobody out.
Next, though, came a strikeout, bringing Andrew Christie to the plate, still with the bases loaded now with one out. A double play gets out of the inning. A fly ball wins it.
And so does a wild pitch. Baer sprinted across the plate, to a huge hug from Christie and a huge dog-pile from the team.
It was a great moment. This was a team that went from last to first in one year and then won that championship in dramatic fashion. Princeton scrapped to this championship.
Next up will be the NCAA tournament. The selections are still two weeks away, which will give Princeton a chance to celebrate and reflect on what it has accomplished.
Eventually the celebration slowed down enough for the trophy presentation. And then there were the Tigers, holding the Ivy League trophy. To the victors go the trophies, and Princeton has clearly won a lot of them in the last two years.
This one, though, was a little different, and maybe a little more special.
Friday, May 13, 2016
Weekend Watch
If you're like TigerBlog, then you think this is one of the three best sporting weekends of the year.
You know. The first round of the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament. Four games tomorrow. Four game Sunday. All on TV.
The other two?
The first two rounds of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, and of course Memorial Day weekend, which is the semifinals and finals of the men's lacrosse tournament in Division I and the Division II and Division III finals.
Okay, every four years you can throw the World Cup in there too.
By the way, odds are good you don't think like TigerBlog and that you like things like the Super Bowl or NBA playoffs or something.
As for the 2016 NCAA men's lacrosse tournament, Princeton is not in it. TigerBlog, as always, is optimistic for next year.
This year's event? It's completely wide open.
TigerBlog's predictions for sporting events are usually awful. And this year's field is too unpredictable anyway.
At various times this year, TigerBlog has thought five teams had a legitimate chance to win it all: Denver, Notre Dame, Maryland, Brown and Yale. Interestingly, they ended up as the top five seeds, so TB has some clue as to what he's talking about.
To show you how completely nuts it is this year, TigerBlog could still see any of those five teams as the champion on Memorial Day in Philadelphia - or knocked out this weekend. Maybe not any of those five knocked out, but it wouldn't be shocking if even three of them lost in the opening round.
The most consistent team this year has probably been Maryland. The team best built for a championship run is probably Brown, with the face-off man (Will Gural), goalie (Jack Kelly) and superstar (Dylan Molloy), as well as an outstanding, deep, veteran supporting cast and a somewhat unique style of play.
Then again, there's the defending champ, Denver. The Pioneers can score with anyone and win face-offs with anyone. Their goalie (Alex Ready) is a freshman, which could be an issue. The last team to win a national championship with a freshman goalie is, TB believes, Syracuse, in 2008, with John Galloway.
Bill Tierney, who has won seven NCAA titles, has never done so with a freshman goalie.
With how this season has gone, what happens next is anyone's guess. And here is TigerBlog's:
He'll go with Syracuse (playing well, solidified goalie position, great face-off guy), Brown, Denver and North Carolina for the Final Four. He'll go Denver-Brown on Memorial Day. He'll take Denver to repeat.
The women's tournament starts today.
Maryland, the two-time defending champ, is unbeaten and the heavy favorite to make it three straight.
Interestingly, Princeton is the last team to win three straight NCAA men's lacrosse championships, having done so in 1996, 1997 and 1998. On the women's side, dynasties have been more common. Maryland was in the middle of a seven-year run while Princeton was winning its three straight, and Northwestern added a run of five straight in the last decade.
If the women's tournament goes according to seed, then the Final Four would be Maryland vs. Syracuse and Florida vs. North Carolina. TigerBlog would say that it's much more likely that those four all make it to Talen Energy Stadium (it's the one in Chester, home of the Philadelphia Union, formerly called PPL Park) than it is that the top four men's seeds all get through.
Princeton's road to being a party buster for the Final Four would involve beating Maryland in the Final Four. The quarterfinal might be a week away, but it might as well be 100 years from now for the Tigers, who need to be fairly focused on the immediate future.
Princeton opens the tournament today at 4 at Cornell against Atlantic 10 champ UMass, who comes into the tournament with a rather gaudy18-1 record, with a lone loss to Boston College. Put another way, UMass hasn't lost since March 2.
Should Princeton get past that game, looming in the second round would be the winner of Cornell-Canisius.
If ever two teams wanted to play each other, it is Princeton and Cornell. Princeton would love to get back at Cornell for knocking the Tigers out of the Ivy League tournament last week. Cornell would love to get another shot at Princeton for beating the Big Red during the regular season and costing Cornell a share of the Ivy League championship, which instead went to Princeton and Penn.
Princeton and Cornell have split one-goal games. They'd love to see each other again. To make that happen, they need to win today.
The games can be seen on the Ivy League Digital Network. NCAA tournament rules require that such videostreams be free, so you don't need an ILDN subscription to watch.
There's other postseason play this weekend for Princeton teams.
The baseball teams hosts the Ivy League championship series against Yale tomorrow and Sunday, hopefully with cooperating weather. You will need an ILDN subscription for those games.
The women's tennis team plays Georgia Tech in the opening round of the NCAA tournament today at the University of South Carolina. .
There's also the Ivy League championships in rowing this weekend as well.
And, as TB said, the eight NCAA tournament men's lacrosse games. He'd like to watch all 16 or so hours, but he'll probably tear himself away to check out the baseball.
He'll definitely be watching the women's game today.
A year from now? Hopefully he'll be busy with the Princeton men at this time of 2017.
You know. The first round of the NCAA men's lacrosse tournament. Four games tomorrow. Four game Sunday. All on TV.
The other two?
The first two rounds of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, and of course Memorial Day weekend, which is the semifinals and finals of the men's lacrosse tournament in Division I and the Division II and Division III finals.
Okay, every four years you can throw the World Cup in there too.
By the way, odds are good you don't think like TigerBlog and that you like things like the Super Bowl or NBA playoffs or something.
As for the 2016 NCAA men's lacrosse tournament, Princeton is not in it. TigerBlog, as always, is optimistic for next year.
This year's event? It's completely wide open.
TigerBlog's predictions for sporting events are usually awful. And this year's field is too unpredictable anyway.
At various times this year, TigerBlog has thought five teams had a legitimate chance to win it all: Denver, Notre Dame, Maryland, Brown and Yale. Interestingly, they ended up as the top five seeds, so TB has some clue as to what he's talking about.
To show you how completely nuts it is this year, TigerBlog could still see any of those five teams as the champion on Memorial Day in Philadelphia - or knocked out this weekend. Maybe not any of those five knocked out, but it wouldn't be shocking if even three of them lost in the opening round.
The most consistent team this year has probably been Maryland. The team best built for a championship run is probably Brown, with the face-off man (Will Gural), goalie (Jack Kelly) and superstar (Dylan Molloy), as well as an outstanding, deep, veteran supporting cast and a somewhat unique style of play.
Then again, there's the defending champ, Denver. The Pioneers can score with anyone and win face-offs with anyone. Their goalie (Alex Ready) is a freshman, which could be an issue. The last team to win a national championship with a freshman goalie is, TB believes, Syracuse, in 2008, with John Galloway.
Bill Tierney, who has won seven NCAA titles, has never done so with a freshman goalie.
With how this season has gone, what happens next is anyone's guess. And here is TigerBlog's:
He'll go with Syracuse (playing well, solidified goalie position, great face-off guy), Brown, Denver and North Carolina for the Final Four. He'll go Denver-Brown on Memorial Day. He'll take Denver to repeat.
The women's tournament starts today.
Maryland, the two-time defending champ, is unbeaten and the heavy favorite to make it three straight.
Interestingly, Princeton is the last team to win three straight NCAA men's lacrosse championships, having done so in 1996, 1997 and 1998. On the women's side, dynasties have been more common. Maryland was in the middle of a seven-year run while Princeton was winning its three straight, and Northwestern added a run of five straight in the last decade.
If the women's tournament goes according to seed, then the Final Four would be Maryland vs. Syracuse and Florida vs. North Carolina. TigerBlog would say that it's much more likely that those four all make it to Talen Energy Stadium (it's the one in Chester, home of the Philadelphia Union, formerly called PPL Park) than it is that the top four men's seeds all get through.
Princeton's road to being a party buster for the Final Four would involve beating Maryland in the Final Four. The quarterfinal might be a week away, but it might as well be 100 years from now for the Tigers, who need to be fairly focused on the immediate future.
Princeton opens the tournament today at 4 at Cornell against Atlantic 10 champ UMass, who comes into the tournament with a rather gaudy18-1 record, with a lone loss to Boston College. Put another way, UMass hasn't lost since March 2.
Should Princeton get past that game, looming in the second round would be the winner of Cornell-Canisius.
If ever two teams wanted to play each other, it is Princeton and Cornell. Princeton would love to get back at Cornell for knocking the Tigers out of the Ivy League tournament last week. Cornell would love to get another shot at Princeton for beating the Big Red during the regular season and costing Cornell a share of the Ivy League championship, which instead went to Princeton and Penn.
Princeton and Cornell have split one-goal games. They'd love to see each other again. To make that happen, they need to win today.
The games can be seen on the Ivy League Digital Network. NCAA tournament rules require that such videostreams be free, so you don't need an ILDN subscription to watch.
There's other postseason play this weekend for Princeton teams.
The baseball teams hosts the Ivy League championship series against Yale tomorrow and Sunday, hopefully with cooperating weather. You will need an ILDN subscription for those games.
The women's tennis team plays Georgia Tech in the opening round of the NCAA tournament today at the University of South Carolina. .
There's also the Ivy League championships in rowing this weekend as well.
And, as TB said, the eight NCAA tournament men's lacrosse games. He'd like to watch all 16 or so hours, but he'll probably tear himself away to check out the baseball.
He'll definitely be watching the women's game today.
A year from now? Hopefully he'll be busy with the Princeton men at this time of 2017.
Thursday, May 12, 2016
More Than Half
TigerBlog got off the Jadwin elevator at around 12:30 yesterday and saw Lisa Van Ackeren was part of the lunchtime basketball game.
It had been two days since Van Ackeren led her Princeton softball team to the Ivy League championship, defeating Harvard in a decisive third game in the Ivy League championship series, and it was four days before she was to find out where her team will be playing in the NCAA tournament.
So why not play some basketball?
Van Ackeren's team gave Princeton its 12th Ivy League championship of the academic year. It also put Princeton two Ivy titles ahead of Harvard for the year.
Oh, and the Ivy League all-sports points championship? The unofficial one?
Princeton has 5.5 point lead over Harvard at this point, but the Tigers are assured of gaining either 4.5 or 5.5 points on the Crimson in baseball. Princeton hosts the Ivy League championship series this weekend, taking on Yale.
Because of that, Princeton will be at minimum 10 points over Harvard when the baseball playoff is over. It means that it is nearly impossible mathematically for Harvard to catch Princeton, which means that Princeton will have won for the 29th time in the last 30 years.
The softball team finished second in its division last year, meaning that Van Ackeren's team became the fifth Princeton team to win this year after not winning last year. Add that to the 12 this year, and that's 17 different Princeton teams that have won an Ivy title in the last two academic years.
Because the Ivy League crowns a champ in 33 sports, that means that more than half of the Princeton teams that compete for an Ivy title have won at least one in the last two years alone. Of all the stats that TigerBlog could come up with related to Princeton sports, that one might be the most impressive.
It shows a total across-the-board commitment to athletic success here, from the department to the University as a whole.
The four league titles still on the table - baseball, women's open rowing, men's lightweight rowing and men's heavyweight rowing - will be decided this weekend. Princeton did not win any of those four a year ago, so it is possible for the percentage of teams to win at least one in the last two years could go up.
Again, that's unbelievably impressive.
As for the four remaining championships, they're part of a busy weekend for Princeton. Not as busy as a weekend in November or February, but still a reasonably busy one.
And the last busy one.
It's also the end of home events at Princeton for the year.
The baseball playoffs begin Saturday at noon on Clarke Field. Princeton and Yale will play twice Saturday, with a deciding game Sunday at 1 if necessary. The winner is the Ivy League champ and earns an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
If you're wondering, Princeton was 7-32 a year ago and 4-16 in the Ivy League. This year has been an amazing turnaround, as the Tigers will bring a 22-18 overall record and 13-7 Ivy record into the weekend.
Princeton went from last in its division a year ago to winning by three games this year.
Yale swept Princeton 6-3 and 6-1 back on April 8 in New Haven, something that means relatively little for the rematch. The bigger issue for Princeton is that it hasn't played in two weeks, because Yale and Dartmouth needed last week for a playoff to decide the divisional title.
In football, a week off to play a team that didn't have a week off could be a pretty good bonus. In baseball, you want to just keep playing. Of course, once the games start, that should be forgotten.
The only other home events left on the 2015-16 calendar are the IC4A and ECAC track meets this weekend at Weaver Track and Field.
The women's lacrosse team and the women's tennis team will be in the NCAA tournament on the road tomorrow, with tennis at South Carolina against Georgia Tech and women's lacrosse at Cornell against UMass. The winner gets the winner of the Big Red and Canisius.
As for the rowing, the Eastern Sprints for men's heavyweights and lightweights are in Worcester, Mass. The heavyweight final could be a great one, as third-ranked Princeton will try to catch second-ranked Yale, with everyone else's trying to catch those two boats.
The women's Ivy League championships will be closer to home, at Mercer County Park in West Windsor. Brown is the favorite there, but never count out Lori Dauphiny.
By the end of the weekend, there won't be that many events left to the academic year.
There will be the NCAA track and field regionals and championships. There will be the national championships in rowing. There will be the NCAA softball tournament and possibly the same for baseball. Women's lacrosse and tennis would love to still be playing.
And that'll be it for 2015-16.
It's already been a wildly successful year. And, with 17 different sports having won Ivy titles, a wildly successful two years.
It had been two days since Van Ackeren led her Princeton softball team to the Ivy League championship, defeating Harvard in a decisive third game in the Ivy League championship series, and it was four days before she was to find out where her team will be playing in the NCAA tournament.
So why not play some basketball?
Van Ackeren's team gave Princeton its 12th Ivy League championship of the academic year. It also put Princeton two Ivy titles ahead of Harvard for the year.
Oh, and the Ivy League all-sports points championship? The unofficial one?
Princeton has 5.5 point lead over Harvard at this point, but the Tigers are assured of gaining either 4.5 or 5.5 points on the Crimson in baseball. Princeton hosts the Ivy League championship series this weekend, taking on Yale.
Because of that, Princeton will be at minimum 10 points over Harvard when the baseball playoff is over. It means that it is nearly impossible mathematically for Harvard to catch Princeton, which means that Princeton will have won for the 29th time in the last 30 years.
The softball team finished second in its division last year, meaning that Van Ackeren's team became the fifth Princeton team to win this year after not winning last year. Add that to the 12 this year, and that's 17 different Princeton teams that have won an Ivy title in the last two academic years.
Because the Ivy League crowns a champ in 33 sports, that means that more than half of the Princeton teams that compete for an Ivy title have won at least one in the last two years alone. Of all the stats that TigerBlog could come up with related to Princeton sports, that one might be the most impressive.
It shows a total across-the-board commitment to athletic success here, from the department to the University as a whole.
The four league titles still on the table - baseball, women's open rowing, men's lightweight rowing and men's heavyweight rowing - will be decided this weekend. Princeton did not win any of those four a year ago, so it is possible for the percentage of teams to win at least one in the last two years could go up.
Again, that's unbelievably impressive.
As for the four remaining championships, they're part of a busy weekend for Princeton. Not as busy as a weekend in November or February, but still a reasonably busy one.
And the last busy one.
It's also the end of home events at Princeton for the year.
The baseball playoffs begin Saturday at noon on Clarke Field. Princeton and Yale will play twice Saturday, with a deciding game Sunday at 1 if necessary. The winner is the Ivy League champ and earns an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
If you're wondering, Princeton was 7-32 a year ago and 4-16 in the Ivy League. This year has been an amazing turnaround, as the Tigers will bring a 22-18 overall record and 13-7 Ivy record into the weekend.
Princeton went from last in its division a year ago to winning by three games this year.
Yale swept Princeton 6-3 and 6-1 back on April 8 in New Haven, something that means relatively little for the rematch. The bigger issue for Princeton is that it hasn't played in two weeks, because Yale and Dartmouth needed last week for a playoff to decide the divisional title.
In football, a week off to play a team that didn't have a week off could be a pretty good bonus. In baseball, you want to just keep playing. Of course, once the games start, that should be forgotten.
The only other home events left on the 2015-16 calendar are the IC4A and ECAC track meets this weekend at Weaver Track and Field.
The women's lacrosse team and the women's tennis team will be in the NCAA tournament on the road tomorrow, with tennis at South Carolina against Georgia Tech and women's lacrosse at Cornell against UMass. The winner gets the winner of the Big Red and Canisius.
As for the rowing, the Eastern Sprints for men's heavyweights and lightweights are in Worcester, Mass. The heavyweight final could be a great one, as third-ranked Princeton will try to catch second-ranked Yale, with everyone else's trying to catch those two boats.
The women's Ivy League championships will be closer to home, at Mercer County Park in West Windsor. Brown is the favorite there, but never count out Lori Dauphiny.
By the end of the weekend, there won't be that many events left to the academic year.
There will be the NCAA track and field regionals and championships. There will be the national championships in rowing. There will be the NCAA softball tournament and possibly the same for baseball. Women's lacrosse and tennis would love to still be playing.
And that'll be it for 2015-16.
It's already been a wildly successful year. And, with 17 different sports having won Ivy titles, a wildly successful two years.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Guest TigerBlog - Returning To Levittown
TigerBlog never met Irv Mondschein, the legendary men's track and
field coach at Penn from the 1960s through the 1980s, including all of
TB's time there.
TB does know Brian Mondschein, Irv's son and the assistant women's track and field coach at Princeton. Brian was an All-America decathlete at the University of Washington as an undergraduate, and he has had a long career as a college track and field coach.
Perhaps it's come from hanging around so close to Peter Farrell or maybe it's just how he's wired but Brian Mondschein is one funny individual. With him, the material is usually good, but it's the subtle delivery that really puts him over the top.
Beyond that, though, Brian is also deep. Way deeper than TigerBlog would have guessed at least until he read Brian's entry in the "Tiger Writes" staff writing competition. It is incredible.
Don't believe TigerBlog. You can read it for yourself, since TB asked Brian for his permission to reprint it as a Guest TigerBlog. And you can see all of the winning entries HERE.
Anyway, here is what Brian had to say:
My father was a Brooklyn-born Jew attending New York University on the G.I. bill who met and married a Hawaiian-born Japanese grad student at Columbia. I think of myself as the poster child for ethnic outliers. Growing up, the kids at my elementary school were either Irish, or Italian, or Polish, or Irish-Italian, or, well… they were something. I was seven, and I asked my parents what I was. My mother told me I was Jewpanese. “Yes,” my father said, nodding. “You are Jewpanese.”
Years later I realized that the Jewpanese were not a bona fide ethnic group, which explained why I had never met any other Jewpanese children at school.
My brother and I grew up in Levittown, New York in the late 50s and early 60s. Levittown was only slightly more enlightened intellectually and culturally than a few other places I have since lived, places often referred to as the “Deep South.” I married a Southerner, and if you are Jewpanese from New York, imagine how disappointing it must be to hear one’s mother-in-law refer to the Civil War as the “Wah of Nawthen Agression.”
“Do people really think like this?” I thought to myself, as I have often thought to myself during a lifetime of thinking things to myself. But I said nothing. The teachable moments are few for those surrounding the Jewpanese living in the South. Even as an adult living in the Louisiana, I felt my primary obligation was neither to correct nor instruct, but to survive, or should I say: live smoothly, without incident. And in that sense, I can find some similarities to the situation Southern students of color who come North for their education experience.
When you live in a state where the saying, “Thank God for Mississippi and Alabama,” lingers as an afterthought to every national survey involving health, education and the general welfare of the populace, being part of “the other” prohibits you from speaking out in many situations where injustice is either perceived, detected, or runs rampant. It isn’t as easy as you would think to speak out about injustice, or to act in the name of social or racial equality, whether you are in Princeton, New Jersey, or Princeton, Mississippi, although the smart money says that when you do speak out, you are less likely to get bitten by a police dog in New Jersey.
But nonetheless you sense things, you feel things. Things to you sometimes seem quietly not right.
In Levittown, the paper boy on his Stingray bike delivered the news to our doorstep 365 days a year.
He was probably four years older than I, two years older than my brother, and he wore boots with heels, his hair slicked and coiffed like the rock and roll singers of the time. Each day he would wait until he got to the end of our block, and then he would yell “Chink!” at my brother and me. It always seemed odd that he would never say anything when he was directly in front of our house. And I would never even look up at him, hoping that this was the day he had decided to stop yelling “chink” at us. But it never was.
There came a day one November that my brother had had enough, and he confronted the paperboy.
For the buzzing in my ears I could not hear a word they were saying, but I knew from the way the paperboy kept tilting his head sideways at my brother trouble was in the works. They began to fight, and the paperboy landed punches that felt as if they were landing sickeningly on my own stomach and chest. My brother was not fighting, it seemed. He was just sort of holding on. I noticed that the paperboy’s pants, the tight jeans that teenage hoods wore in those days, now had a tear in them, and there was some blood coming from his knee. My brother tightened his grip on the paperboy while they struggled on the ground. I saw that the paperboy had begun to cry. Finally, my brother stood up, the paperboy still face down and motionless on the ground, trying not to cry but the tears still streaming across his reddened cheeks. “We’re not Chinks,” my brother said to him, “We’re Japs.”
We rode off on my brother’s bike with me on the handle bars and my brother peddling down our street. We rode through a pile of yellow and brown leaves, and I kicked the pile with both my feet.
It’s possible to think of your mind as a kitchen strainer or a common sieve. Most of your experiences pass through easily and are long forgotten, but for one reason or another, and sometimes it seems pretty random, things get trapped by the sieve. What’s interesting is that we don’t really get to choose what memories get trapped, what events in our lives make up who we are and how we think. One day something touches a chord in us, unleashing feelings that we never acted on or never knew we had, and we find ourselves doing things that surprise us and others around us. We are standing up for ourselves in a manner of speaking, or we are standing up for our brothers and sisters, or a group of people, or just people we feel connected to. Sometimes the injustice is so far removed from where we are at present that the standing up part almost seems contrived or misdirected. But doing the right thing always feels like the right thing, and, well, if we don’t like that there are people occupying the President’s office, think only to yourself that the President seems pretty good with it, so you might as well be too. Maybe he knows something that you don’t.
As for myself, as untouched as I am as an adult by the transgressions of the real world, I am but one step away in my mind from the boy I was in Levittown, New York, watching my older brother fighting in the street against what I would now call ignorance, but what I thought of back then as tyranny. Perhaps the part of us that once felt alien and mistreated, while different for everyone, may be the key to understanding some of the things that are happening on our campus and in our country.
And the Jewish part of Jewpanese?
OMG. A whole other story.
TB does know Brian Mondschein, Irv's son and the assistant women's track and field coach at Princeton. Brian was an All-America decathlete at the University of Washington as an undergraduate, and he has had a long career as a college track and field coach.
Perhaps it's come from hanging around so close to Peter Farrell or maybe it's just how he's wired but Brian Mondschein is one funny individual. With him, the material is usually good, but it's the subtle delivery that really puts him over the top.
Beyond that, though, Brian is also deep. Way deeper than TigerBlog would have guessed at least until he read Brian's entry in the "Tiger Writes" staff writing competition. It is incredible.
Don't believe TigerBlog. You can read it for yourself, since TB asked Brian for his permission to reprint it as a Guest TigerBlog. And you can see all of the winning entries HERE.
Anyway, here is what Brian had to say:
My father was a Brooklyn-born Jew attending New York University on the G.I. bill who met and married a Hawaiian-born Japanese grad student at Columbia. I think of myself as the poster child for ethnic outliers. Growing up, the kids at my elementary school were either Irish, or Italian, or Polish, or Irish-Italian, or, well… they were something. I was seven, and I asked my parents what I was. My mother told me I was Jewpanese. “Yes,” my father said, nodding. “You are Jewpanese.”
Years later I realized that the Jewpanese were not a bona fide ethnic group, which explained why I had never met any other Jewpanese children at school.
My brother and I grew up in Levittown, New York in the late 50s and early 60s. Levittown was only slightly more enlightened intellectually and culturally than a few other places I have since lived, places often referred to as the “Deep South.” I married a Southerner, and if you are Jewpanese from New York, imagine how disappointing it must be to hear one’s mother-in-law refer to the Civil War as the “Wah of Nawthen Agression.”
“Do people really think like this?” I thought to myself, as I have often thought to myself during a lifetime of thinking things to myself. But I said nothing. The teachable moments are few for those surrounding the Jewpanese living in the South. Even as an adult living in the Louisiana, I felt my primary obligation was neither to correct nor instruct, but to survive, or should I say: live smoothly, without incident. And in that sense, I can find some similarities to the situation Southern students of color who come North for their education experience.
When you live in a state where the saying, “Thank God for Mississippi and Alabama,” lingers as an afterthought to every national survey involving health, education and the general welfare of the populace, being part of “the other” prohibits you from speaking out in many situations where injustice is either perceived, detected, or runs rampant. It isn’t as easy as you would think to speak out about injustice, or to act in the name of social or racial equality, whether you are in Princeton, New Jersey, or Princeton, Mississippi, although the smart money says that when you do speak out, you are less likely to get bitten by a police dog in New Jersey.
But nonetheless you sense things, you feel things. Things to you sometimes seem quietly not right.
In Levittown, the paper boy on his Stingray bike delivered the news to our doorstep 365 days a year.
He was probably four years older than I, two years older than my brother, and he wore boots with heels, his hair slicked and coiffed like the rock and roll singers of the time. Each day he would wait until he got to the end of our block, and then he would yell “Chink!” at my brother and me. It always seemed odd that he would never say anything when he was directly in front of our house. And I would never even look up at him, hoping that this was the day he had decided to stop yelling “chink” at us. But it never was.
There came a day one November that my brother had had enough, and he confronted the paperboy.
For the buzzing in my ears I could not hear a word they were saying, but I knew from the way the paperboy kept tilting his head sideways at my brother trouble was in the works. They began to fight, and the paperboy landed punches that felt as if they were landing sickeningly on my own stomach and chest. My brother was not fighting, it seemed. He was just sort of holding on. I noticed that the paperboy’s pants, the tight jeans that teenage hoods wore in those days, now had a tear in them, and there was some blood coming from his knee. My brother tightened his grip on the paperboy while they struggled on the ground. I saw that the paperboy had begun to cry. Finally, my brother stood up, the paperboy still face down and motionless on the ground, trying not to cry but the tears still streaming across his reddened cheeks. “We’re not Chinks,” my brother said to him, “We’re Japs.”
We rode off on my brother’s bike with me on the handle bars and my brother peddling down our street. We rode through a pile of yellow and brown leaves, and I kicked the pile with both my feet.
It’s possible to think of your mind as a kitchen strainer or a common sieve. Most of your experiences pass through easily and are long forgotten, but for one reason or another, and sometimes it seems pretty random, things get trapped by the sieve. What’s interesting is that we don’t really get to choose what memories get trapped, what events in our lives make up who we are and how we think. One day something touches a chord in us, unleashing feelings that we never acted on or never knew we had, and we find ourselves doing things that surprise us and others around us. We are standing up for ourselves in a manner of speaking, or we are standing up for our brothers and sisters, or a group of people, or just people we feel connected to. Sometimes the injustice is so far removed from where we are at present that the standing up part almost seems contrived or misdirected. But doing the right thing always feels like the right thing, and, well, if we don’t like that there are people occupying the President’s office, think only to yourself that the President seems pretty good with it, so you might as well be too. Maybe he knows something that you don’t.
As for myself, as untouched as I am as an adult by the transgressions of the real world, I am but one step away in my mind from the boy I was in Levittown, New York, watching my older brother fighting in the street against what I would now call ignorance, but what I thought of back then as tyranny. Perhaps the part of us that once felt alien and mistreated, while different for everyone, may be the key to understanding some of the things that are happening on our campus and in our country.
And the Jewish part of Jewpanese?
OMG. A whole other story.
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Ivy Softball Champs
Tuesday Trivia: Who was the pitcher who threw a complete game to knock Princeton out the last time the Tiger softball team was in the NCAA tournament?
TigerBlog will get to that in a few minutes.
First, he wants to talk about the weather forecast he heard yesterday. It said that the rain was going to push out and that tomorrow - which is actually today - would be a beautiful sunny day around here.
The only problem is that it wasn't raining yesterday. And it's not supposed to be a beautiful sunny day today.
The whole thing made TB wonder if the forecast wasn't for a different day and it was actually replayed by mistake. It was curious.
Anyway, the weather was one of the main stories of the Ivy League softball championship series, which began Saturday and didn't end until yesterday.
Princeton, the South Division champ, was at Harvard, the North Division champ. It was best-of-three, with the winner to the NCAA tournament.
Because of the persistent rain that lasted, oh, seemingly forever in the Northeast, the start of the series had to be delayed.
As an aside, how exactly does BrotherBlog live in Seattle, where it's like it was around here the last 10 days for about nine months of the year?
Anyway, Princeton won Game 1. Harvard went up 7-1 in the sixth inning in Game 2. Then it got too dark to finish. Then it rained again, making Sunday a washout.
Well, not quite a washout.
Andrew Borders, TigerBlog's Office of Athletic Communications colleague and the softball contact, said he went to the battlefield at Concord Sunday. You know. Concord. April 19, 1775. The start of the American Revolution. Paul Revere. The Minutemen.
As for softball, though, there wasn't any.
Instead, it had to wait until today. Harvard, as the home team, was at home, as it were. Princeton was on an indefinite road trip.
TigerBlog has always thought that being on the road in the Ivy League can be a blessing, since it gives a team a chance to get away from everything on its own campus, bond as a team and focus on the task at hand. That's the situation Princeton was in during the weather delays.
When play was able to be restarted, Harvard quickly closed out Game 2, creating the make-or-break Game 3.
Princeton would only score in one inning of Game 3, though the Tigers made it count in a big way. Princeton put up eight runs in the second inning and then Shanna Christian made it stand up, as Princeton won 8-3. In true team fashion, Princeton had six different players drive in at least one run in the inning.
Christian, a senior from Colorado, was also the winner in Game 1. TigerBlog doesn't really know any of the softball players other than Kayla Bose, a senior who drove in two in the second inning and who works for the marketing staff on game days and at other events, and Riley Wilkinson, a freshman pitcher who played the piano while lacrosse player Sam Gravitte sang in one of the "Who's the Tiger" videos in the fall.
The win vaulted Princeton into the NCAA tournament. The Tigers will find out where and when they play this coming Sunday.
For Princeton, it was Ivy League championship No. 12 for the academic year of 2015-16. And it was a big one, for bragging rights at least.
Princeton had 11 Ivy titles prior to Game 3. Harvard had 10, after the women's track and field title Sunday. If Harvard had won the softball game, then Princeton and Harvard would have been tied. Instead, Princeton now is two up, with four championships still on the table - baseball (Princeton hosts Yale this weekend in a best-of-three) and three rowing.
For Princeton head coach Lisa Van Ackeren, it was the first Ivy title after three straight second-place division finishes. Van Ackeren, who TB is guessing isn't even 30 yet, is off to a pretty good start to a coaching career.
In a short time she has definitely become an important part of the Department of Athletics fabric. She - and her husband Brendan, who works for the Princeton Varsity Club - are fixtures at any number of Princeton sports, and she is the kind of person you love to have representing the department and University.
And that was before she won an Ivy title.
And so congratulations to the Tigers on winning the Ivy League softball championship.
What? The trivia question?
Oh yeah.
Princeton's last NCAA softball appearance was in 2008, when the Tigers played in a regional at UMass with the host team, Stanford and Lehigh. The Tigers were eliminated by Lehigh, who got a complete game and an RBI from Lisa Sweeney, who improved to 26-5 with the win.
And who is Lisa Sweeney?
Well, she's now Lisa Van Ackeren.
This time she'll be rooting for Princeton.
TigerBlog will get to that in a few minutes.
First, he wants to talk about the weather forecast he heard yesterday. It said that the rain was going to push out and that tomorrow - which is actually today - would be a beautiful sunny day around here.
The only problem is that it wasn't raining yesterday. And it's not supposed to be a beautiful sunny day today.
The whole thing made TB wonder if the forecast wasn't for a different day and it was actually replayed by mistake. It was curious.
Anyway, the weather was one of the main stories of the Ivy League softball championship series, which began Saturday and didn't end until yesterday.
Princeton, the South Division champ, was at Harvard, the North Division champ. It was best-of-three, with the winner to the NCAA tournament.
Because of the persistent rain that lasted, oh, seemingly forever in the Northeast, the start of the series had to be delayed.
As an aside, how exactly does BrotherBlog live in Seattle, where it's like it was around here the last 10 days for about nine months of the year?
Anyway, Princeton won Game 1. Harvard went up 7-1 in the sixth inning in Game 2. Then it got too dark to finish. Then it rained again, making Sunday a washout.
Well, not quite a washout.
Andrew Borders, TigerBlog's Office of Athletic Communications colleague and the softball contact, said he went to the battlefield at Concord Sunday. You know. Concord. April 19, 1775. The start of the American Revolution. Paul Revere. The Minutemen.
As for softball, though, there wasn't any.
Instead, it had to wait until today. Harvard, as the home team, was at home, as it were. Princeton was on an indefinite road trip.
TigerBlog has always thought that being on the road in the Ivy League can be a blessing, since it gives a team a chance to get away from everything on its own campus, bond as a team and focus on the task at hand. That's the situation Princeton was in during the weather delays.
When play was able to be restarted, Harvard quickly closed out Game 2, creating the make-or-break Game 3.
Princeton would only score in one inning of Game 3, though the Tigers made it count in a big way. Princeton put up eight runs in the second inning and then Shanna Christian made it stand up, as Princeton won 8-3. In true team fashion, Princeton had six different players drive in at least one run in the inning.
Christian, a senior from Colorado, was also the winner in Game 1. TigerBlog doesn't really know any of the softball players other than Kayla Bose, a senior who drove in two in the second inning and who works for the marketing staff on game days and at other events, and Riley Wilkinson, a freshman pitcher who played the piano while lacrosse player Sam Gravitte sang in one of the "Who's the Tiger" videos in the fall.
The win vaulted Princeton into the NCAA tournament. The Tigers will find out where and when they play this coming Sunday.
For Princeton, it was Ivy League championship No. 12 for the academic year of 2015-16. And it was a big one, for bragging rights at least.
Princeton had 11 Ivy titles prior to Game 3. Harvard had 10, after the women's track and field title Sunday. If Harvard had won the softball game, then Princeton and Harvard would have been tied. Instead, Princeton now is two up, with four championships still on the table - baseball (Princeton hosts Yale this weekend in a best-of-three) and three rowing.
For Princeton head coach Lisa Van Ackeren, it was the first Ivy title after three straight second-place division finishes. Van Ackeren, who TB is guessing isn't even 30 yet, is off to a pretty good start to a coaching career.
In a short time she has definitely become an important part of the Department of Athletics fabric. She - and her husband Brendan, who works for the Princeton Varsity Club - are fixtures at any number of Princeton sports, and she is the kind of person you love to have representing the department and University.
And that was before she won an Ivy title.
And so congratulations to the Tigers on winning the Ivy League softball championship.
What? The trivia question?
Oh yeah.
Princeton's last NCAA softball appearance was in 2008, when the Tigers played in a regional at UMass with the host team, Stanford and Lehigh. The Tigers were eliminated by Lehigh, who got a complete game and an RBI from Lisa Sweeney, who improved to 26-5 with the win.
And who is Lisa Sweeney?
Well, she's now Lisa Van Ackeren.
This time she'll be rooting for Princeton.
Monday, May 9, 2016
Let Me Tell You A Story
Cecilia Barowski was in third place when she took the baton on Weaver Track yesterday in the 4x400 relay, the final event of the meet.
TigerBlog, watching from the concourse, had two thoughts.
First, he thought, this was over. Barowski was going to catch both runners ahead of her, and Princeton would win the race.
Second, he thought, this is it. This is the last lap, the last 400 meters, of the last Heps for Peter Farrell as the head coach of women's track and field at Princeton.
As Barowski caught up and then took the lead, TigerBlog's next thought was actually a question. If you added every athlete in every event who competed for Farrell at Heps since 1977, how many miles of racing would you have?
Thousands, TB presumes.
After all, you're talking 39 years worth of Heps. With cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field, that's 117 Heps for Farrell.
Before TigerBlog could come up with a figure, his attention was diverted. Barowski had zoomed to the front, and she won going away, bringing Princeton home by nearly a second.
It was the end of a day that was sunny and windy, one of those days where if you stood in the shade you were cold and in the sun you were hot. When it finally was over, a party of sorts broke out.
It's rare that the team that comes in second celebrates to the extent that the Princeton women did, but that's how it worked out on the grass infield. There were chants of "Peter, Peter," mixed with pictures and videos and hugs and smiles.
Farrell's brother Tom, an Olympic bronze medalist, was among those there.
TigerBlog has already written about Peter Farrell since he announced this would be the last year for him as the only head coach of Princeton women's track and field. You can read it HERE, though odds are good you've already read it, since it's the most read entry in TigerBlog history.
There's a difference, though, in writing about something that is coming and standing there watching it as it unfolds.
This weekend wasn't end of Farrell's career. Not quite.
In fact, it wasn't even the end of his home career. Princeton will host the IC4A and ECAC this coming weekend.
And then there is the NCAA regional, which will be the last weekend of May in Florida. And the NCAA championships in Eugene, Ore., in June.
Peter was honored after the meet yesterday with a gift and a nice tribute, but it was hard to hear what was being said, since the party on the infield sort of took over. This was exactly what Farrell didn't want, anything farewell tour-ish, but too bad.
Someone with his career and persona has to accept that those from his team and from the teams against whom he has competed for so long will want to recognize this. And so that's what happened.
As for the meet itself, Princeton's men and women both finished second, behind Cornell on the men's side and Harvard on the women's side. There were success stories for both teams.
On the men's side, there was Greg Leeper, who won the 400 meter hurdles. TigerBlog didn't see the race, but he heard the end as he walked toward the stadium.
If you want the complete recap of the men's Heps, click HERE.
If you want the complete recap of the women's Heps, click HERE.
If you've never been to a Heps, it's just non-stop motion, as one event blends in to another event, often with overlap of one event and another. There are runners who blaze down the straightaway, going right past jumpers who pause before beginning down their own runway, only in the other direction.
There is so much going on at all times. Look across the field, and there's something unique about each person you see.
For TigerBlog, though, this Heps was about Peter Farrell.
It's hard to imagine a Heps without him there. Coaching track and field is a little different in that the coaches can take time away to have a conversation during the event, something that doesn't work in basketball or football or most sports.
TigerBlog has been a bunch of Heps events, not as many as Farrell, but a bunch. He's talked to Farrell at each of them, and it's always sort of interesting to see how a coach in the middle of a league championship event feels.
TB wrote this after Heps cross country this past fall:
Before the race, TigerBlog saw Princeton coach Peter Farrell and asked him if he was nervous. Farrell's response was "you don't have to tell me it's race day." He was quoting someone. TigerBlog isn't sure if it was a real person or a fictional character. Either way, TB is also not sure if Farrell was nervous.
Yeah, that's about right.
TigerBlog doesn't think Farrell was nervous yesterday. He was, possibly, anxious about how this was his last Heps. He was also happy with the way his team played.
After the hugs and the presents and the pictures, Peter was asked to do an interview. As he walked away, he said to the reporter: "let me tell you a story."
TB couldn't hear what Peter was saying, but whatever his story was, it was a long one. And, if TB had to guess, a funny one.
Maybe at some point Peter thought to himself that his days of doing these kinds of things were dwindling, but TB doubts it.
Nah. Peter just had a funny story to tell, so he told it. That's how he is.
This was his day. This was his environment.
Heps wll be there next year. It won't be the same without Peter Farrell.
TigerBlog, watching from the concourse, had two thoughts.
First, he thought, this was over. Barowski was going to catch both runners ahead of her, and Princeton would win the race.
Second, he thought, this is it. This is the last lap, the last 400 meters, of the last Heps for Peter Farrell as the head coach of women's track and field at Princeton.
As Barowski caught up and then took the lead, TigerBlog's next thought was actually a question. If you added every athlete in every event who competed for Farrell at Heps since 1977, how many miles of racing would you have?
Thousands, TB presumes.
After all, you're talking 39 years worth of Heps. With cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field, that's 117 Heps for Farrell.
Before TigerBlog could come up with a figure, his attention was diverted. Barowski had zoomed to the front, and she won going away, bringing Princeton home by nearly a second.
It was the end of a day that was sunny and windy, one of those days where if you stood in the shade you were cold and in the sun you were hot. When it finally was over, a party of sorts broke out.
It's rare that the team that comes in second celebrates to the extent that the Princeton women did, but that's how it worked out on the grass infield. There were chants of "Peter, Peter," mixed with pictures and videos and hugs and smiles.
Farrell's brother Tom, an Olympic bronze medalist, was among those there.
TigerBlog has already written about Peter Farrell since he announced this would be the last year for him as the only head coach of Princeton women's track and field. You can read it HERE, though odds are good you've already read it, since it's the most read entry in TigerBlog history.
There's a difference, though, in writing about something that is coming and standing there watching it as it unfolds.
This weekend wasn't end of Farrell's career. Not quite.
In fact, it wasn't even the end of his home career. Princeton will host the IC4A and ECAC this coming weekend.
And then there is the NCAA regional, which will be the last weekend of May in Florida. And the NCAA championships in Eugene, Ore., in June.
Peter was honored after the meet yesterday with a gift and a nice tribute, but it was hard to hear what was being said, since the party on the infield sort of took over. This was exactly what Farrell didn't want, anything farewell tour-ish, but too bad.
Someone with his career and persona has to accept that those from his team and from the teams against whom he has competed for so long will want to recognize this. And so that's what happened.
As for the meet itself, Princeton's men and women both finished second, behind Cornell on the men's side and Harvard on the women's side. There were success stories for both teams.
On the men's side, there was Greg Leeper, who won the 400 meter hurdles. TigerBlog didn't see the race, but he heard the end as he walked toward the stadium.
If you want the complete recap of the men's Heps, click HERE.
If you want the complete recap of the women's Heps, click HERE.
If you've never been to a Heps, it's just non-stop motion, as one event blends in to another event, often with overlap of one event and another. There are runners who blaze down the straightaway, going right past jumpers who pause before beginning down their own runway, only in the other direction.
There is so much going on at all times. Look across the field, and there's something unique about each person you see.
For TigerBlog, though, this Heps was about Peter Farrell.
It's hard to imagine a Heps without him there. Coaching track and field is a little different in that the coaches can take time away to have a conversation during the event, something that doesn't work in basketball or football or most sports.
TigerBlog has been a bunch of Heps events, not as many as Farrell, but a bunch. He's talked to Farrell at each of them, and it's always sort of interesting to see how a coach in the middle of a league championship event feels.
TB wrote this after Heps cross country this past fall:
Before the race, TigerBlog saw Princeton coach Peter Farrell and asked him if he was nervous. Farrell's response was "you don't have to tell me it's race day." He was quoting someone. TigerBlog isn't sure if it was a real person or a fictional character. Either way, TB is also not sure if Farrell was nervous.
Yeah, that's about right.
TigerBlog doesn't think Farrell was nervous yesterday. He was, possibly, anxious about how this was his last Heps. He was also happy with the way his team played.
After the hugs and the presents and the pictures, Peter was asked to do an interview. As he walked away, he said to the reporter: "let me tell you a story."
TB couldn't hear what Peter was saying, but whatever his story was, it was a long one. And, if TB had to guess, a funny one.
Maybe at some point Peter thought to himself that his days of doing these kinds of things were dwindling, but TB doubts it.
Nah. Peter just had a funny story to tell, so he told it. That's how he is.
This was his day. This was his environment.
Heps wll be there next year. It won't be the same without Peter Farrell.
Friday, May 6, 2016
Lax Thoughts
TigerBlog ran into Matt O'Connor of the men's lacrosse team the other day.
O'Connor was a few days removed from the last game of his Princeton men's lacrosse career. To say it had gone well for him would be an understatement.
O'Connor, a senior goalie, came in at halftime of Princeton's game against Cornell last Saturday and put up the best performance of his career, making 11 saves while allowing two goals as Princeton won 7-6.
It was the last game of the season for the Tigers, who did not reach the Ivy League tournament. At the start of each season, reaching the Ivy tournament is probably the first of several goals.
On the other hand, because Princeton was not going to be in the Ivy tournament, it did make last Saturday's game against Cornell as a pretty good way to go out. Most teams do not win their last game - Princeton did.
And they did so dramatically.
It was senior day, and it was a senior who scored the game-winner, when Ryan Ambler scored his 76th and final goal with four minutes to go. And it was O'Connor, who had started 16 games as a freshman and sophomore, who made it stand up, with five third-quarter saves and then six more fourth-quarter saves.
When it ended, O'Connor lifted his arms over his head in celebration. It made for a great moment.
And a great picture.
Before turning the page on the 2016 Princeton men's lacrosse season, TigerBlog wants to mention a few things.
First, there's Gavin McBride. The junior didn't earn any All-Ivy League recognition after leading the Tigers with 26 goals. Only six players in the league scored more than he did, and all six of them were on one of the all-league teams.
McBride finished the season with at least three goals in five straight games. It's the longest streak at Princeton since Sean Hartofilis did it six straight times in 2001.
You know who else in the Ivy League this year has at least three goals in five straight games? Nobody. Not Dylan Molloy. Not Ben Reeves. Nobody.
McBride has established himself as one of the best - and clearly most consistent - scorers Princeton has had in the last decade or so. He isn't flashy or showy, but he gets open and he finishes.
McBride went from no goals as a freshman to 24 last year, which are the most by any Princeton player as a sophomore who did not have any as a freshman. Austin Sims almost caught McBride this year, finishing with 23 of his own to earn second-team All-Ivy honors.
Sims will spend his summer with the U.S. national U-19 team at the World Championships in British Columbia. That experience will only make him better for his last two seasons - and he already has All-America level talent.
Zach Currier was a first-team All-Ivy selection. The junior will be back next year for one more year of doing what it is he does - which is namely everything. There can't be too many midfielders, if any, who have played more minutes than Currier this year, who faces off, plays on the wings on face-offs when he doesn't, plays in the first and second offensive midfields and often finds himself on the defense end of the field.
Currier put up 31 points this year with 14 goals and 17 assists. He also ranks 10th in the country in ground balls per game; none of the players ranked ahead of him had more than 13 points and only two of those nine reached 10.
When Tom Schreiber played at Princeton, there was a level of excitement every time he touched the ball, because you never knew what he would do next. In Currier's case, that excitement comes when either the ball is loose.
Lastly, TigerBlog wants to say something about Ambler.
The first time TigerBlog saw Ambler play was against TigerBlog Jr., when Ambler was a senior in high school and TBJ was a freshman. TigerBlog introduced himself after the game and explained that he'd be seeing Ambler play a lot in college.
From that day, TigerBlog was impressed with his maturity. Ambler's, not TigerBlog's.
Ambler finished his career 10th all-time at Princeton with 168 points (76G, 92A), and his assist total is seventh-best in program history. Only Ambler, Schreiber, Jon Hess and Dave Heubeck have more than 75 career goals and 90 career assists.
Ambler was a total workhorse in his time at Princeton, and he was the foundation of some really good offenses. He played hard all the time and made the players around him better, which is the best thing you can say about someone who plays attack.
So that's the men's season.
The women's season is still going strong.
Princeton opens the Ivy League tournament against Cornell this afternoon at 4 at Penn's Franklin Field. The host Quakers take on Harvard in the second game.
The championship game is Sunday at 11 a.m.
To the winner goes an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. To at least one and probably two of the others will go an at-large bid.
It's hard to imagine that Princeton and Penn aren't complete locks for the NCAA tournament. Cornell is probably in as well, though if Harvard should win the tournament, it would change things a bit.
Princeton or Penn, in fact, will be in the conversation to host the first two rounds by winning the tournament. Princeton won the Ivy tournament a year ago and has won three straight Ivy League championships.
Princeton is led by goalie Ellie DeGarmo, who was the unanimous Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year. She's also a Tewaaraton Trophy nominee, of which there are 25. A team that is hoping to make a nice postseason run could do worse than be led by such a goalie.
Olive Hompe, like DeGarmo, was a unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection. Also like DeGarmo, Hompe is one of the 25 nominees for the Tewaaraton Trophy.
Just a junior, Hompe has already vaulted past 100 career goals. She has 41 this year, along with 11 assists.
Princeton's other first-team All-Ivy pick was Liz Bannantine, who earned All-Ivy honors for the fourth time, with two second-team and now two first-team selections.
Princeton and Penn are the only two schools ever to host the Ivy League women's tournament, now in its seventh year. Penn defeated Princeton in the regular season this year; Princeton beat Penn in the regular season last year and Harvard and Penn in the Ivy tournament before winning two NCAA tournament games.
The NCAA field will be announced Sunday. This weekend is a good prelude to next.
The Princeton women are still playing, and in many ways, the season is just starting for them.
The Princeton men are not still playing - but they did win their last game. Not too many teams will be able to say that.
O'Connor was a few days removed from the last game of his Princeton men's lacrosse career. To say it had gone well for him would be an understatement.
O'Connor, a senior goalie, came in at halftime of Princeton's game against Cornell last Saturday and put up the best performance of his career, making 11 saves while allowing two goals as Princeton won 7-6.
It was the last game of the season for the Tigers, who did not reach the Ivy League tournament. At the start of each season, reaching the Ivy tournament is probably the first of several goals.
On the other hand, because Princeton was not going to be in the Ivy tournament, it did make last Saturday's game against Cornell as a pretty good way to go out. Most teams do not win their last game - Princeton did.
And they did so dramatically.
It was senior day, and it was a senior who scored the game-winner, when Ryan Ambler scored his 76th and final goal with four minutes to go. And it was O'Connor, who had started 16 games as a freshman and sophomore, who made it stand up, with five third-quarter saves and then six more fourth-quarter saves.
When it ended, O'Connor lifted his arms over his head in celebration. It made for a great moment.
And a great picture.
Before turning the page on the 2016 Princeton men's lacrosse season, TigerBlog wants to mention a few things.
First, there's Gavin McBride. The junior didn't earn any All-Ivy League recognition after leading the Tigers with 26 goals. Only six players in the league scored more than he did, and all six of them were on one of the all-league teams.
McBride finished the season with at least three goals in five straight games. It's the longest streak at Princeton since Sean Hartofilis did it six straight times in 2001.
You know who else in the Ivy League this year has at least three goals in five straight games? Nobody. Not Dylan Molloy. Not Ben Reeves. Nobody.
McBride has established himself as one of the best - and clearly most consistent - scorers Princeton has had in the last decade or so. He isn't flashy or showy, but he gets open and he finishes.
McBride went from no goals as a freshman to 24 last year, which are the most by any Princeton player as a sophomore who did not have any as a freshman. Austin Sims almost caught McBride this year, finishing with 23 of his own to earn second-team All-Ivy honors.
Sims will spend his summer with the U.S. national U-19 team at the World Championships in British Columbia. That experience will only make him better for his last two seasons - and he already has All-America level talent.
Zach Currier was a first-team All-Ivy selection. The junior will be back next year for one more year of doing what it is he does - which is namely everything. There can't be too many midfielders, if any, who have played more minutes than Currier this year, who faces off, plays on the wings on face-offs when he doesn't, plays in the first and second offensive midfields and often finds himself on the defense end of the field.
Currier put up 31 points this year with 14 goals and 17 assists. He also ranks 10th in the country in ground balls per game; none of the players ranked ahead of him had more than 13 points and only two of those nine reached 10.
When Tom Schreiber played at Princeton, there was a level of excitement every time he touched the ball, because you never knew what he would do next. In Currier's case, that excitement comes when either the ball is loose.
Lastly, TigerBlog wants to say something about Ambler.
The first time TigerBlog saw Ambler play was against TigerBlog Jr., when Ambler was a senior in high school and TBJ was a freshman. TigerBlog introduced himself after the game and explained that he'd be seeing Ambler play a lot in college.
From that day, TigerBlog was impressed with his maturity. Ambler's, not TigerBlog's.
Ambler finished his career 10th all-time at Princeton with 168 points (76G, 92A), and his assist total is seventh-best in program history. Only Ambler, Schreiber, Jon Hess and Dave Heubeck have more than 75 career goals and 90 career assists.
Ambler was a total workhorse in his time at Princeton, and he was the foundation of some really good offenses. He played hard all the time and made the players around him better, which is the best thing you can say about someone who plays attack.
So that's the men's season.
The women's season is still going strong.
Princeton opens the Ivy League tournament against Cornell this afternoon at 4 at Penn's Franklin Field. The host Quakers take on Harvard in the second game.
The championship game is Sunday at 11 a.m.
To the winner goes an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. To at least one and probably two of the others will go an at-large bid.
It's hard to imagine that Princeton and Penn aren't complete locks for the NCAA tournament. Cornell is probably in as well, though if Harvard should win the tournament, it would change things a bit.
Princeton or Penn, in fact, will be in the conversation to host the first two rounds by winning the tournament. Princeton won the Ivy tournament a year ago and has won three straight Ivy League championships.
Princeton is led by goalie Ellie DeGarmo, who was the unanimous Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year. She's also a Tewaaraton Trophy nominee, of which there are 25. A team that is hoping to make a nice postseason run could do worse than be led by such a goalie.
Olive Hompe, like DeGarmo, was a unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection. Also like DeGarmo, Hompe is one of the 25 nominees for the Tewaaraton Trophy.
Just a junior, Hompe has already vaulted past 100 career goals. She has 41 this year, along with 11 assists.
Princeton's other first-team All-Ivy pick was Liz Bannantine, who earned All-Ivy honors for the fourth time, with two second-team and now two first-team selections.
Princeton and Penn are the only two schools ever to host the Ivy League women's tournament, now in its seventh year. Penn defeated Princeton in the regular season this year; Princeton beat Penn in the regular season last year and Harvard and Penn in the Ivy tournament before winning two NCAA tournament games.
The NCAA field will be announced Sunday. This weekend is a good prelude to next.
The Princeton women are still playing, and in many ways, the season is just starting for them.
The Princeton men are not still playing - but they did win their last game. Not too many teams will be able to say that.
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