Silver And Silver

TigerBlog said last week that if you're a Princeton fan and you're not following Tiger photographer Shelley Szwast on Twitter, then you're missing out.

TB is proud to announce that Shelley had a nearly 20 percent increase in her following after that — but you're still missing out on a great opportunity for excellent Princeton Athletics content by not following her. She's at @split2ndphoto.

Go follow her. TB will wait.

Did you do it? Good. You'll be glad you did.

Speaking of Twitter, another great follow is TB's colleague Warren Croxton (@WarrenCroxton). If you follow him, you'll get equal parts Princeton sports, Philly sports and wholesome Baby Croxton stuff like this:

I’ve now reached the matching @WaltDisneyWorld family shirt stage of dad life. pic.twitter.com/trF7RVy6v0

— Warren Croxton (@WarrenCroxton) August 7, 2022

By the way, see that angelic little face (the baby's, not Warren's). Well, this conversation is about 12 years away (14 at the max):

Warren: "I booked our annual summer trip to Disney World!!!!!!"
Theresa: "Dad, you're so lame. I'm not going there again. I want to spend the week with my friends. They're going to the Shore."

This will be preceded and followed by eye rolling. A suitable number of years later, she'll be back in the mode for family trips.

TB saw something else on Twitter that was fascinating for him. It was this:

Here it is with the call: https://t.co/ZZj5oHPAzs pic.twitter.com/OoQh2xo6dm

— Honest☘️Larry (@HonestLarry1) August 7, 2022

TB remembers watching the race, watching the finish and seeing the hat. He once talked to former Tiger women's track and field coach Peter Farrell about the race and Wottle, and he knew all about him.

Wottle went on from winning Olympic gold in 1972 to coaching college track and field while serving as the Director of Admissions at Bethany College in West Virginia before spending 28 years as the Director of Admissions at Rhodes College in Memphis. 

Also, TB has no idea who Honest Larry is, but he's in New Jersey. Maybe he's a Princeton fan. 

He's definitely a Boston fan, that's for sure. 

Speaking of Princeton women's track and field, the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, ended yesterday. Princeton women's track and field program had an outstanding performance at the Games, as three different Tigers from three different countries all competed and all won medals.

It started with the bronze medal won last week by Obiageri Amaechi in the discus. Amaechi competed for Nigeria.

She finished seventh at the NCAA championships as a freshman in 2017 to earn first-team All-American honors, but her second-team effort from finishing 13th as a senior in 2021 might have been more impressive, given that it came after she spent most of the spring not knowing if she would be able to compete as the pandemic had shut things down.

Princeton women's track and field added two more medals over the weekend, and both were silvers.

In the hammer throw, former NCAA champion Julia Ratcliffe of New Zealand finished second to earn her medal. The gold went to Canadian Camryn Rogers, who finished fourth last summer at the Olympics in Tokyo, where Ratcliffe finished ninth. 

Rogers' winning throw was more than four meters better than Ratcliffe, whose runner-up throw was in turn 2.5 meters better than the rest of the field. 

For Ratcliffe, she now has three Commonwealth Games medals, with two silvers and a gold. 

Lizzie Bird, the British record holder for the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase who also finished ninth at the Tokyo Olympics, finished second in her event as well, with a personal best of 9:17.79.

Bird finished a little more than two seconds behind winner Jackline Chepkoech of Kenya, an 18 year old who set the Commonwealth Games record with a 9:15.69. Chepkoech's time was 14 seconds better than her previous personal best.

As for Bird, her fastest 1,000 meters in the race were the final 1,000, which she ran in 3:02.8, which was three seconds faster than her first 1,000 and six seconds faster than her middle 1,000. 

Princeton's Ed Trippas, from Austrlia, finished seventh in the men's steeplechase. Trippas was also an Olympian last summer. 

If you're counting, Australia won the most medals in the competition with 172, or six more than England. Canada, New Zealand and India were the next three countries.