Some More Catching Up

TigerBlog would have liked to have been at the Ross Tucker/Kyle Brandt Jake McCandless Speaker Series event last night. 

Of course, he would have liked to have been at the women's lacrosse game at Loyola too, and since they were at the same time, he could only pick one of those. 

TB forgot to mention yesterday that he wrote a feature story about Tucker in his senior year (2000 football season). One of the things that Tucker, an offensive lineman, said was that he hoped to at least get into an NFL training camp to see if they'd let him keep the helmet when he got cut.

He would, in fact, get into a training camp. Actually, he'd go on to play for seven seasons in the NFL, and he was on the field for the Dallas Cowboys when Emmitt Smith set the league's career rushing yardage record.

Presumably, Tucker has more than his share of NFL helmets. 

With how busy it's been around here with women's basketball and wrestling NCAA championship successes, TigerBlog has fallen behind on a few other items. To wit:

* Alexis Laudenslager of the softball team was named the Ivy League Pitcher of the Week this past week, and this should not be shocking news to anyone. Laudenslager was about as good as you can be, as she threw 11 innings against Brown over two games and allowed zero hits.

By the way, the great Harvey Yavener, who used to cover Princeton sports for a few decades, used to call no-hitters "zero-hitters." He's the only one who has ever used that term to TB's knowledge, and it has a certain charm to it.

Laudenslager threw four innings of relief Friday as the Tigers erased a two-run deficit to win 4-2. She then threw a complete game zero-hitter against the Bears Sunday.

Princeton swept the three-game set, which is a great way to get started in the league race. Up this week is a series at Harvard.

* The winter may be over, but the winter season hangs on just a bit longer. Princeton will be well-represented at two NCAA championship events this weekend, in men's and women's fencing and in men's swimming and diving.

Princeton is one of four teams in the country to qualify the maximum 12 fencers for the championships, which will be held at Notre Dame. Princeton's women are the No. 1 team in the country, but the NCAA awards only one combined team champion. Princeton has won it once under this current format, back in 2013.

For a lot more information on the fencing this weekend, click HERE.

There will be one swimmer and four divers at the championships in Atlanta. This is from the goprincetontigers.com preview story:

Raunak Khosla, the lone Princeton swimmer to qualify for NCAAs, will race in the 200 IM, the 400 IM, and the 200 butterfly. In all three events he was 2022 Ivy League Champion, earned First Team All-Ivy League honors, and holds the school record.

Senior and co-captain Colten Young will compete in all three diving events, and will be joined by George Callanan, Taso Callanan and Joe Victor in the platform dive. For more, click HERE.

* The baseball team also had the Ivy League Player of the Week, as Brendan Cumming was honored after the Tigers split four games with other Tigers, the ones from Towson. From the release on goprincetontigers.com:

In Princeton's 2-2 series split against Towson, Cumming posted a .545/.583/1.091 slash line with 12 hits, 13 RBI, 10 runs scored, three doubles, and three home runs. In the Tigers' 21-8 game-three victory, Cumming set a single-game program record with nine RBI, surpassing Zack Belski's previous record of eight against Brown in 2016.

The baseball team opens the Ivy portion of its schedule this weekend with three games at home against Yale, beginning at 11:30 Saturday with a doubleheader and then a single game at noon Sunday. Princeton is 2-13 on the season but don't be fooled: the Tigers played a very tough schedule and had some pretty good showings, including a one-run loss at Mississippi State, the defending NCAA champ.

* Bill Bromberg was absent from the Class of 1952 Stadium press box for the men's lacrosse game last weekend against Penn. This in itself is news, as Bromberg hardly ever misses a game.

He's done well over 600 Princeton games between basketball and lacrosse. He hates to miss any, but this time it was unavoidable, as he needed some surgery. By all indications he is doing well. 

TB spoke with him yesterday, and he was already out and about and sounding pretty upbeat. There aren't too many nicer people who have ever walked onto Princeton's campus than Bill Bromberg, so it's good to see him on the mend.

* Princeton has the No. 1 ranked women's tennis player in the country. Her name is Daria Frayman.

She is the only women's tennis player in Ivy League history ever to reach the No. 1 individual ranking. 

Her team is 4-9 overall but that is a very misleading record, as seven of the Tigers' nine losses have come to Top 25 teams. Princeton is home for the first time this spring tomorrow, when Old Dominion is here at 3. Next weekend is the start of the Ivy League season, with a home match against Penn.

* It's definitely spring. At least that's what the calendar says. This weekend is the opening weekend of Princeton rowing, with the men's heavyweight and women's open crews at home and the men's and women's lightweights on the road. 

Remember, Princeton is the defending IRA women's lightweight national champion.

* For the complete weekend schedule, click HERE.