Welcomes And Congrats

TigerBlog had a meeting earlier this week and needed to set up a follow-up for next week.

How's Wednesday, he was asked. Sure. No problem.

Then he got a calendar notice about the meeting, and he was slightly taken aback by the part that said his meeting was going to be August 1.

Wait. It's going to be August already? This is the last weekend of July?

So it is.

TigerBlog starts the last Friday in July with a welcome to Sean Letsinger, the new head coach of men's and women's diving. Sean comes to Princeton from Richmond, where he coached the last five years.

He's also a 2010 graduate of the University of Tennessee, and his resume also includes two years as the head coach at South Dakota State and extensive success as a club coach.

You can read the complete release about his hire HERE.

Welcome to Princeton, Sean. And while TB is in a welcoming mood, how about a welcome back to THESE GUYS?

Didn't click on the link? Well, TigerBlog stumbled on the story of these 42,000 year old worms who were just unfrozen in Siberia.

Each day TigerBlog get a list of news stories that have some connection to Princeton from the University's Office of Communications. He likes to scan the list to see if anything leaps out at him that he would consider to be interesting.

What could be more interesting than this headline: Worms Frozen In Permafrost For 42,000 Years Come Back To Life? It's a story that appeared in the Siberian Times, of all places.

When TigerBlog clicked on the link to "sports" in the Siberian Times, the top headlines included:
* World Cup goal triggers marriage proposal by Siberian doctor
* Women's American football team in Vladivostock accused of vulgarity after daring photo shoot
* Fan killed in fight between rival football clubs in Novosibirsk
* Burning angel gets second degree burns to win $350 prize at snow festival
* Don't mess with Siberia's strongest woman as she deals with crazy driver

Those were some good stories. The "Burning Angel" set himself on fire to win a ski competition. The marriage proposal one was sweet. The strongest woman one, well, it's what you think.

You can read them all HERE.

By the way, as bad as Siberian winters are known to be, the summers can be worse, what with the worst mosquito problem in the world. 

What else does TB have for you on this Friday?

In addition to the welcomes, there are also some congratulations in order.

First, there's Margot Putukian, Princeton's team doctor. Margot was also the team doctor for the U.S. team at the World Lacrosse championships in Israel, where the Americans won the gold medal.

Did TigerBlog mention that before? He can't remember.

Anyway, being the team doctor is a lot more involved than just standing on the sideline in case someone gets hurt. With team rosters frozen at 23, health and wellness become hugely important, especially considering some of the American players were a little older and that the tournament was played in the oppressive Israeli heat.

So congratulations to Margot. And also to the members of the Princeton fencing program who had such great success at the recent World Championships in China.

Eliza Stone won bronze in the women's saber. Stone, the 2013 NCAA champions in the saber, was seeded 23rd of 101 fencers in the knockout round after going 5-1 in round-robin and then won four times to get to the semifinals.

Kat Holmes, a 2016 Olympian and the NCAA runner-up in the epee to fellow Princetonian Anna Van Brummen, was part of the U.S. epee team that won the gold medal in China. From the goprincetontigers.com story:
The U.S. then beat Russia in the semifinals, 27-25, with Holmes again turning a deficit into a lead, outscoring her match-ending foe 13-10. That set up a final against South Korea, and Holmes again was the closer, turning a two-touch deficit into an 18-17 win by outscoring her opponent 8-5.

You can read that entire story HERE.

And so congratulations to the two Princeton fencers.

And that's your last Friday in July.

Enjoy the weekend.

And keep this thought in mind: The first Princeton athletic event of the 2018-19 season is just four weeks away.