Winter Sports

Now this is Crossover Season.

There is so much going on for the weekend that it'll take two days to preview it all. Hmmm. 

How about winter sports today and spring sports tomorrow? That's not a bad plan. Plus, it'll give you a sense of just how many teams are playing. 

Okay. Winter sports it is for today. 

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It'll definitely be an Ivy League title weekend for at least three teams, with the men's swimming and diving championships in Providence and the Heptagonal indoor track and field championships at Cornell. 

In the track and field world, the Princeton women came within six points of winning a year ago. The Princeton men, on the other hand, went wire-to-wire and won by 53 points over runner-up Cornell.

For the men, last year's championship was the ninth in a row. Princeton is currently ranked second in the Mid-Atlantic Region, the same spot Harvard has in the Northeast. Penn is No. 4 in the Mid-Atlantic; Cornell is No. 3 in the Northeast, with Dartmouth at No. 6.

Princeton's women are also No. 2 in the Mid-Atlantic (in fact, the top four men and women are in the same order in the Northeast, with Penn State at No. 1 followed by Princeton, Rutgers and Penn). Harvard is No. 1 in the Northeast.

Princeton's distance medley relay team of Connor McCormick, Xavier Donaldson, Sam Rodman and Harrison Witt earned the Ivy Athlete of the Week honor after they broke the league record this past Friday at Boston University with a 9:17.30. When you hear "distance medley relay" and "Ivy record," it becomes even more impressive when you consider that the 2013 Princeton DMR (Michael Williams, Austin Hollimon, Russell Dinkins, Peter Callahan) won the NCAA championship in 9:33.01.

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The men's swimming and diving championships are being held at Brown. Harvard has won seven straight Ivy titles, and you have to go back to 1993 to find a year where the winner was not Harvard or Princeton. 

The Tigers are the only ranked Ivy team right now, at No. 23. Harvard and Yale are in the "receiving votes" category. 

Princeton defeated both Harvard and Yale at the recent HYP meet.

The swimmer to keep an eye on is Mitchell Schott, a junior who has one Ivy relay championship on his resume. Schott has already set three Princeton program records this season (100 free, 500 free, 1000 free). 

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The women's hockey team defeated RPI 3-2 last weekend in the ECAC first round playoff game and will now travel to Colgate for the quarterfinals, which are best of three. Game 1 is tomorrow at 6, with Game 2 at 6 Saturday and then Game 3 if necessary at 3 Sunday. 

Junior issy Wunder was named the Ivy league Player of the Year this week after scoring 24 goals, second on the team, with 47 points and a plus-31 rating. She was also a unanimous first-team All-Ivy selection. 

Sarah Paul and Mackenzie Alexander were both second-team selections, and Rosie Klein was honorable mention. 

Princeton and Colgate split their two regular season meetings, with an overtime goal from Wunder in a 4-3 Tiger win on Nov. 22 in Princeton and then a 4-0 Colgate win on Jan. 18 in Hamilton.

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The men's hockey regular season ends with a road trip to St. Lawrence and Clarkson, with puck drop at 7 tomorrow and Saturday. 

Princeton will be on the road for the opening playoff game next week, most likely at RPI, Harvard or Brown.

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TigerBlog gave you the men's basketball update yesterday. For the women, Princeton is at Harvard tomorrow (8) and Dartmouth Saturday (7), which means that nobody is playing in Jadwin Gym this weekend, which is a real rarity. 

It's very likely that the Princeton-Harvard game will be a preview of the Ivy tournament semifinal. Columbia is 10-1 in the league and Princeton and Harvard are both 9-2. Columbia still has games left against Brown, Yale and Cornell, none of whom has a winning record in the league. 

Columbia has the tiebreaker over Princeton with its 2-0 record against the Tigers and would have the tiebreaker in a three-way tie with Princeton and Harvard. The Lions would also have the tiebreaker over Harvard if both finish 12-2.

Princeton defeated Harvard 52-50 in the meeting at Jadwin in January. 

Princeton, Harvard and Columbia have all clinched Ivy tournament spots. The fourth spot will go to either Penn or Brown.