A Spring Weekend

TigerBlog got a little dressed up yesterday.

Black dress pants. Black dress shoes. Nice button down shirt.

Okay, no jacket, no tie. Still, it wasn't the usual uniform - khakis, Princeton Athletics shirt, official Princeton issue sneakers.

The occasion? It was the University's annual Service Recognition luncheon in Jadwin Gym, and TigerBlog was there to support his guys Craig Sachson and Andrew Borders, who were being honored for working at Princeton for 15 years and 10 years.

Craig was one of the rare ones there, TigerBlog assumes, in that he has not worked 15 consecutive years at Princeton. He was an intern for two years and then worked for two years at Cornell before coming back to Princeton for 13-plus more and counting.

The luncheon honors people whose service time ends in a zero or five, beginning with 10 years. There was one person honored for working at Princeton for 50 years, and the top 53 people honored have worked at Princeton for a combined 2,000 years.

Those 53 were called onto the stage to be greeted by University president Chris Eisgruber as their job titles were read. TigerBlog couldn't help but marvel about how many different people work here and how wildly varied their jobs are.

TigerBlog sat a table with Sachson, Borders, Ford Family Director of Athletics Mollie Marcoux and three women from the Pace Center for Civic Engagement. Sadly, none of the three said that they regularly attend Princeton athletic events.

They did talk about how technology has evolved at Princeton through the years and wondered where technology will be in another 20 years or so. It's a great question. If TigerBlog had the answer, much like if Rocky's turtles Cuff and Link could sing and dance, he wouldn't have to be doing this.

The technology discussion got TigerBlog to thinking about things that haven't evolved through the years, and he came up with two things: braces, and the SATs.

TigerBlog wore braces when he was a high school sophomore and junior. Miss TigerBlog recently got her braces off. They basically haven't changed at through the years, something that surprises TB a bit. He figured there'd be a laser or a pill or something that would zap people's teeth into a perfectly straight line.

And the SATs? MTB just took those a few weeks ago, and it still takes about eight weeks to get your scores back. TB doesn't get that at all. Shouldn't it be about a day or two?

As TigerBlog walked away from the luncheon yesterday, he peeked up through a divider there to dress the building up at the basketball stands. As he did, he couldn't help but think about how quickly the basketball season at Princeton had come and gone.

This weekend marks the end of the winter, with the NCAA swimming and diving championships and the NCAA fencing championships. Princeton's women opened the four-day fencing competition in Massachusetts in third place, behind Columbia and St. John's.

Freshman Charlene Liu led all fencers in the epee division, and Gracie Stone was second in the saber. From Andrew's story: he top four fencers from each weapon after the round-robin bouts finish Friday will have the chance to fence for the individual NCAA title. Semifinal bouts will start with épée, then foil and saber, followed by final bouts in those weapons. All the semifinal and final bouts will be broadcast on ESPN3.com.

As for the swimming, the Princeton men started out by doing something that hadn't been done in four years. From Craig's story: The quartet of En-Wei Hu-Van Wright, Sandy Bole, Julian Mackrel and Alex Lewis made Princeton history in Atlanta Thursday during Day 2 of the NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships. After qualifying for the consolation final during the preliminary session, the Tigers jumped up three spots to finish 13th in a time of 1:18.02 and earn All-America Honorable Mention.

The heart of the spring season is still ahead, but this is the first actual spring weekend.

There have been almost no home events at Princeton for the last two weekends, and the home schedule this weekend isn't what it's going to be in the next few weeks. Still, there are some nice events.

The two-time defending Ivy champion women's tennis team begins its league schedule by hosting Penn tomorrow. The match is scheduled to be played outdoors, at the Lenz Center, beginning at 1.

The softball team has its home opener, with a doubleheader against Colgate, beginning at 2. Princeton spent last week in California on its spring trip.

Tomorrow is also the first home weekend for rowing, with women's open and lightweights and men's heavyweights at home. You want rowing previews? Craig has you covered:

men's lightweight
men's heavyweight
women's open
women's lightweight

There are also several teams on the road, including both lacrosse teams and the baseball team.

TigerBlog will be in New Haven for the men's lacrosse game at Yale, who is ranked third nationally. Princeton and Yale have played nine times since Chris Bates became head coach, and seven of those - including all six regular-season games - have been decided by one goal. A year ago, Princeton and Yale split 11-10 games, with a Princeton win in the regular season and a Yale win in the Ivy tournament final.

The women's lacrosse team will be on the road - again - this time at Harvard. The Tigers will be playing the third of five straight games away from home.

Princeton is unbeaten in the Ivy League, as are Harvard, Cornell and Penn.

The baseball team is in Annapolis to take on Navy. The Tigers play home Wednesday against Seton Hall and then next weekend at home against Dartmouth and Harvard.

And that's your weekend. The last of winter. A lot of spring.