Some Boys In The Boat

The Princeton Athletics end-of-year picnic was starting to wind down yesterday afternoon in front of Jadwin Gym when five "Boys in the Boat" walked by.

If you read the book, you get the reference. If not, "The Boys In The Boat" was about the improbable run to an Olympic gold medal by the 1936 University of Washington crew.

The "boys" who walked by the end of the picnic were obviously not from that boat. They were clearly from Washington, though, as all five of them were dressed in purple with some sort of U-Dub branding. 

Knowing that the Intercollegiate Rowing Association championships are taking place this weekend at Mercer Lake, about seven miles or so from Jadwin, it was fairly obvious that these guys were rowers. That, plus the fact that they certainly looked the part. 

When TigerBlog saw them, he walked over to them — somehow managing to tear himself away from Jon Kurian's croquet match — and introduced himself. Actually, the first thing he said was "you guys must be rowers."

After they confirmed that, TB mentioned that BrotherBlog was a law professor at the University of Washington law school. This immediately bonded TB and the rowers.

It's TB's nature to ask a lot of questions, and so he asked them where they were from, if they'd ever been to Princeton, what they thought of the campus. As it turned out, one of them was Michael Thiers, whose sister Katie is on Princeton's women's basketball team. 

After about three or four minutes, Ford Family Director of Athletics John Mack walked by. The first thing he said? "Rowers?" It's always good to have the same thought process as the AD.

The five rowers asked TB if they could go inside Jadwin and check out the arena. When TB said of course, they followed him into the building and up the stairs to the balcony level. They were all suitably impressed, especially after TB explained that the temporary stands come out on game nights to create a very intimate atmosphere.

After that, it was out to Princeton Stadium and onto Powers Field. Again, the Huskies loved the feel of the building.

If you're ever been to Seattle, you know that Washington's football stadium sits on the shore of Lake Washington, and there are tailgate parties on boats on the water. Princeton Stadium doesn't quite have that geography, but it's still a pretty impressive structure if you've never seen it before.

The U-Dub Five asked a lot of questions about the campus, the athletic facilities and the town. TB pointed them across Washington Road and then up to Nassau Street, and then it was five really firm handshakes and some nice "thank yous" for TB's time. They were incredibly nice, polite young men, that's for certain.

After their time checking out Princeton, it's now time for the Washington rowers and everyone else to get serious about the weekend. As TB said, it may have been an end-of-year picnic, but there's still the matter of the final five Princeton teams, all of whom have competitors searching for national championships and All-American honors. Next weekend it's the NCAA track and field championships at Texas.

First, though, it's the IRA championships on Mercer Lake. All three of Princeton's teams who are there will be in search of at least a trip to the podium, if not the biggest prize.

The women's lightweights and the men's lightweights are both ranked No. 1 in the country. Has one school ever swept the men's and women's lightweight championships at the IRAs? Yes, but only once. That was back in 1997, the first year of a women's lightweight national championship race, when Harvard and Radcliffe both won.

The women's lightweights and men's lightweights both won the Eastern Sprints championships. The women's lightweight 1V boat has not lost a race since the 2019 final at IRAs, where Princeton finished second. The Tigers won the 2021 and 2022 national titles. The men's lightweights have spent most of the season ranked No. 1, though they do have a loss to Cornell on the regular season record. 

Can the 2023 Tigers match the 1997 Crimson?

That's one possible storyline.

There's also the men's heavyweights, who are ranked third nationally. The Tigers will look to overtake defending champion and top-ranked Cal and spoil the final race for Yale coach Steve Gladstone, who is retiring after this weekend. Gladstone has already won 14 IRA national championships, with six at Cal, five with Brown and three with Yale.

The schedule for the entire weekend can be found HERE. 

As the Washington rowers said more than once, it figures to be a great weekend of racing in Mercer County. 

TB will be rooting for the Huskies he met yesterday — to come in second.