Golden Features

Before the page completely turns on last weekend, it's important to acknowledge what the men's water polo did in California. 

Princeton went 2-2 on a trip to the West, and it's possible that one of the losses was its most impressive performance. 

The Tigers lost to No. 1 UCLA this past Friday 17-16 in overtime. That's an extraordinary effort against a team that, if it's not the best in the country, is certainly as good as any. 

Princeton's other loss came against Cal, who is ranked third, by a 15-10 score. The two wins came over No. 10 Long Beach State (14-12) and over No. 15 UC-San Diego (17-10).

Not that it really matters, but Princeton, by the way, somehow dropped in this week's poll, going from sixth to seventh. 

Roko Pozaric has 30 goals so far this season for the Tigers, which gives him 236 for his career. The Princeton career record is 254, set by John Stover, who graduated in 2005. 

Pozaric is currently in sixth place, trailing Stover, Kevin Foster and Matt Payne (244 each), Robert Urquhart (242) and Andrew Hoffenberg (238). Next up for the Tigers is a trip to New York this weekend, with games at Fordham (tied with Long Beach State for 10th) Friday night and then at Iona and LIU Saturday. 

Pozaric was a first-team All-American a year ago and the Northeast Water Polo Association Player of the Year each of the last two years. He's a native of Croatia, which is an international water polo powerhouse. 

This past summer at the Paris Olympics, Croatia won silver after losing the final to Serbia 13-11. Water polo has been contested at every Summer Olympics other than the first one in 1896, and the first gold medal belonged to Great Britain in 1900.

TigerBlog didn't realize the sport went back that far. 

Croatia was part of Yugoslavia from 1918-1991. The first time Yugoslavia won an Olympic medal was in 1952 with a silver; in all, the country would win eight Olympic medals, three of which were gold.

On its own Croatia has won one gold and two silvers. Could Pozaric find himself on the Croatian team in Los Angeles in 2028? 

As you probably already know, Princeton had three Olympic gold medalists in Paris. As you hopefully know, TigerBlog has written feature stories about all three of them. 

The first one was about Hannah Scott, who won in quad sculls rowing. You can read that one HERE if you haven't already. 

The second was about Nick Mead, who won in men's pairs rowing. You can read that one HERE if you haven't already.

The third was about Maia Weintraub, who won in the U.S. team foil fencing event. That one was released yesterday, and you can read it HERE.

Weintraub is back at Princeton now, ready to become the fifth Princetonian to compete as a Tiger after winning Olympic gold. The other four are Robert Garrett (who won two track and field golds in 1896), Bill Bradley (basketball gold in 1964), Ashleigh Johnson (water polo gold in 2016) and Sarah Fillier (ice hockey gold in 2022). 

If you want to feel old, TB had to explain to Weintraub who Bill Bradley was. 

TigerBlog had never met any of the three gold medalists before he spoke to them for the stories. He came away thinking he had a pretty good understanding of who they were and what drove them as athletes and people.

In Weintraub's case, she talked about the dichotomy that exists between who she is an athlete and who she is away from fencing. It's hard to get people who don't know much about fencing to really understand just how physically and mentally demanding the sport is and what it takes to be great at it.

If you read the story, you'll see how that side of her had to be developed and coached as much as her skill. 

And then there was the other side of her, the one that doesn't give off the vibe of a world class athlete. That's the side of her that, when asked about her summer, says ...

... well, you'll have to read the story to find out what she says. 

TB guarantees you it's worth it.