Princeton 14, Rutgers 12

As you recall from last week, TigerBlog mentioned that Jerry Carino, one of New Jersey's top sportswriters, was working on a list of the top 50 women's college athletes in the state's history in honor of the 50th anniversary of Title IX.

The rules were this: 

* had to compete for a four-year New Jersey college
* didn't have to be a New Jersey native
* were being judged on what you did as a college athlete and in one year after graduation

Carino reached out to TB for help in identifying some Princeton athletes for the list. His story appeared in the Asbury Park Press, and other Gannett papers, over the weekend. 

One of TB's first questions for Carino was whether or not the list would be ranked in order, and Carino said it would be. This got TB to immediately thinking about who the top female college athlete in New Jersey history was.

It took almost no time for a name to pop into his head, and it turned out to be the woman who was No. 1 in the story as well. That would be basketball player Carol Blazejowski, from Montclair State.

In her time at Montclair State, Blazejowski scored 3,199 points, averaging 31.7 points per game, including 38.6 per game as a senior in 1978, when she led her team to the AIAW Final Four before losing to UCLA. She was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1994.

Had it been TB's list, he probably would have had Blazejowski as No. 1. He will say, though, that a case could be made for Ashleigh Johnson.

The Princeton water polo goalie was a first-team All-American who won the first of her two Olympic gold medals while still an undergraduate. Also, within a year of graduation, she was named the top water polo player in the world.

As it turned out, Johnson was No. 3 on Carino's list. Who was No. 2? That would be Sue Wicks, the Rutgers women's basketball player who was the 1988 national women's Player of the Year and a three-time All-American.

Johnson was the highest-ranked Princeton athlete on the list. In all, there were 14 Princeton athletes out of the 50 total, more than any other New Jersey college. This does not surprise TB.

Rutgers, with 12, was second, which means that those two schools comprised with 26 of 50, or more than half. Next up was Seton Hall, with five, and then the College of New Jersey with three.

Who else from Princeton was on the list? 

Princeton had two more in the top 10, with NCAA champion and two-time Olympic gold medal winning rower Caroline Lind at No. 8 and swimmer Cathy Corcione at No. 9. Corcione was an Olympic swimmer in 1968 as a 15 year old who then won four individual national titles and a gold medal at the World University Games as one of the Tigers' first great women athletes.

Next up were a pair of two-sport athletes and teammates on two NCAA championship teams. That would be No. 14 (Theresa Sherry, lacrosse and soccer) and No. 17 Rachael Becker DeCecco (lacrosse, field hockey). Sherry scored the game-winning goal in overtime in the 2003 NCAA final against Virginia; Becker was the 2004 Tewaaraton Award winner as the top lacrosse player in the country.

NCAA hammer throw champion Julia Ratcliffe was No. 20. Eliza Stone was No. 24 after being an NCAA individual sabre champion while leading the Tigers to the team title as well. Both Ratcliffe and Stone would reach the Olympics in 2021.

There were two more Olympians at No. 27 and No. 29, first Kat Sharkey, an NCAA field hockey champion who is the program's all-time leading scorer, and then Diana Matheson, a first-team All-American in soccer who was on Princeton's 2004 NCAA Final Four team and who won two Olympic bronze medals.

One spot behind Matheson was Bella Alarie, whose 1,703 points are the most in Princeton women's basketball history. Another basketball player, Niveen Rasheed, was 37th; between them, they had five Ivy Player of the Year Awards.

Three-sport athlete Demer Holleran, a three-time national squash champion and an All-Ivy League lacrosse goalie, was No. 40. Carol Brown was No. 41 after being a national champion swimmer and Eastern champion rower before becoming the first Tiger woman to win an Olympic medal when she won bronze in rowing in Montreal in 1976.

The other Princeton athlete on the list was Sarah Filler at No. 32. Fillier, who is back with Princeton this year after winning Olympic ice hockey gold last winter, is the only current collegian who made the list. 

One thing that really stands out to TB is that Princeton's 14 athletes competed in 11 different sports. The 12 from Rutgers were in six sports. It speaks to the Princeton Athletics model — and the Princeton Athletics success.

All in all, it was a fun project. Thanks to Jerry Carino for his efforts.