Quite A Weekend

 TigerBlog thought three things heading into the Princeton Athletic weekend:

1) the women's basketball team would win the Ivy League tournament but one game would be closer than 10 points
2) the men's lacrosse team had a great chance to beat Rutgers
3) Princeton's men's track and field team would produce at least one NCAA champion

Check. Check. Check

If you don't believe him, you can ask Ford Family Director of Athletics John Mack. TB texted him all those things Friday.

What he didn't include was the men's and women's fencing teams, who produced three weapon champions at the NCAA regional at Jadwin Gym. 

So where to start?

It has to be with men's track and field. What Princeton did at the NCAA championships in Birmingham this weekend was extraordinary.

Princeton did in fact have its NCAA champion, accomplished Friday when Sondre Guttormsen won the pole vault, in an event in which his brother Simon finished fourth. Sondre, a junior, was a Norwegian Olympian this past summer.

His win was followed by top four performances by Andrei Iosivas in the heptathlon and by the distance medley relay team of Harrison Witt, Michael Phillippy, Sam Rodman and Sam Ellis. C.J. Licata finished eighth in the shot put.

Added all together, and Princeton sent eight athletes to Alabama, and all eight earned All-American honors. As a team, Princeton finished a remarkable fifth. It's one of the great accomplishments by a Princeton team in recent memory.

As TB also mentioned, the fencing teams had a big weekend. The women had two weapon winners, and two weapon winners named Maia, for that matter. It was Maia Weintraub in the foil, and it was Maia Chamberlain in saber.

In fact, Weintraub was followed by teammates Tinney Mak and May Tieu as the Tigers went 1-2-3 in foil. Chamberlain led a 1-2 Princeton finish in epee, as Lola Constantino was second. 

On the men's side, Mohamed Hamza, a 2021 Olympian as well who reached the quarterfinals in Tokyo,  won the foil. The announcement of Princeton's NCAA championship qualifiers will be announced tomorrow.

For men's lacrosse, it was a second straight win over the No. 3 team in the country, this time Rutgers for the Meistrell Cup. Up next is the Ivy opener against Penn Saturday; the Quakers figure to be another Top 5 opponent after they stayed unbeaten with two late goals to beat Villanova.

By the way, the Ivy League looks absolutely loaded top to bottom this year.

On the women's side, the Princeton women put up their second-highest goal total ever with a 27-18 win at San Diego State. That's a lot of goals.

As for the women's basketball team, the Tigers won the Ivy League tournament championship by taking down Harvard 72-67 and Columbia 77-59. The win against Harvard was the first time since Carla Berube became head coach that an Ivy team stayed within 10 points of the Tigers.

It was not unexpected. Harvard was playing knowing that a loss would mean the end of the 40-year career of head coach Kathy Delaney-Smith. The Crimson fought hard for their coach and pushed Princeton to the limit.

Considering this is March, that was a good thing. One of the down sides of winning comfortably is that you don't have many chances to know what it's like to have to execute when things are tight - and when stakes are highest.

To that end, Princeton showed you a great deal in Friday's semifinal. It did so again in the final against a Columbia team that was fired up to try to earn its own NCAA bid, especially after the Lions crushed Yale in the semifinals 67-38.

The final was tied at 16-16 after one quarter. Princeton did what Princeton does after that, which is to say play smothering defense and calm, steady offense to pull away.

The MVP of the tournament was Kaitlyn Chen, who put up 30 in the final. 

To the victor belonged the spoils, which in this case meant the NCAA tournament automatic bid. Had Princeton not won the tournament, it's almost a sure thing that the Tigers would have seen their name called anyway during last night's Selection Show.

As it turns out, Princeton will play Kentucky in its NCAA opener, Saturday in Bloomington, Ind. The Tigers were given a No. 11 seed, and their first-round opponent has won 10 straight, most recently over the No. 1 overall seed, South Carolina, to win the SEC tournament.

It's also the second straight time Princeton will play Kentucky in the NCAA tournament. The Tigers fell 82-77 to the Wildcats in the 2019 tournament.

It won't be easy at all. It will be exciting. That's what March is all about.