Weekend Connections

As TigerBlog has often said, he's a big fan of puzzles. 

His daily routine includes the mini, midi and regular crosswords. There are Strands, Letterboxed and Spelling Bee. 

And Wordle. He recently saw a great cartoon that had a guy standing on the side of a highway holding a sign that said: "Today's Wordle Is ..."

And Connections, both the regular and the sports version. All of those are an every day thing for TB. 

As such, he saw this (before three different people sent it to him) the other day: 

There it is. Princeton. It's one of the four clues that refer to "offenses," along with pick and roll, triangle and motion. 

In fact, that has inspired TigerBlog to make his second attempt at a "Princeton Athletics" Connections edition. 

The first one didn't go too well, since it's really hard to find the balance between way too easy and impossible. This time, this is sort of a Weekend in Review Connections. 

And here you are:

Lightning || Cab || Spain || Mack

Softball ||  Word || Jackson || Miley Cyrus

Dom || Burchett || Atkinson || Maple Syrup 

The Academy || Women's Tennis || Rugby || Payne

Okay, figure it out? Again, it's not that easy to balance making it too easy and too hard. 

And now TB needs to give you a few paragraphs to work on it. Hmmmm. What should he talk about in the meantime? 

Well, here's something: TB is getting congratulations on his LinkedIn page for his work anniversary. It says it's his 35th year at Princeton. 

The only problem is that this isn't the case. He's finishing Year 32 as a Princeton employee, after five years of covering Princeton while in the newspaper business. So 35th anniversary? 

He's not sure where that came from. In fact, he's not even sure where his LinkedIn page came from, since he isn't the one who set it up. He's pretty sure that someone in the athletic department set them up for a bunch of people. 

Still, thanks to everyone who checked in on LinkedIn. 

Anyway, back at Weekend Connections. Did you solve it?

Here are the answers: 

* Lightning, Miley Cyrus, Maple Syrup, The Academy
* Atkinson, Burchett, Jackson, Payne
* Cab, Dom, Mack, Word
* Rugby, Softball, Spain, Women's Tennis

Did you get it right? 

Here are the way they're connected: 

* Lightning, Miley Cyrus, Maple Syrup, The Academy

This would be things associated with places where Princeton teams competed this weekend. 

Lightning? That would be Tampa, where the women's rugby team went 5-1 at the Tropical 7s, reaching the final of the event. 

Miley Cyrus? That would be Franklin, Tenn, which is Miley's hometown. That's where the men's golf team competed at the Mason Rudolph Championship. 

Maple Syrup? Vermont. In this case, Burlington, Vermont. That's where the men's lacrosse team was Saturday for a 19-5 win over the Catamounts in a game that was 13-0 at the half. 

The Academy? That's Annapolis, Md., where the men's heavyweight rowing team retained the Navy-Princeton Cup, winning every race of the day.  

 * Atkinson, Burchett, Jackson, Payne

This would be the 4x100 relay team of Brooke Jackson, Maisha Atkinson, Laila Payne and Franziska Burchett, who ran a 45.39 to win the event Saturday at Princeton's Sam Howell Invitational. It was the second-fastest time in program history. 

 * Cab, Dom, Mack, Word

This would be words that sound like the beginning of the first or last names of Princeton athletes who led their teams in scoring this weekend. 

Cab — Nate Kabiri of the men's lacrosse team, who had five goals and two assists at Vermont.

Dom — Graciela Dominguez of the softball team, who scored seven runs in three games, all wins, over Brown. The three wins improved Princeton to 9-0 in the league, something no team has done before since the league went to its current format of three-game series against each team in 2018. 

Mack — Jami MacDonald of the women's lacrosse team, who also had five goals and two assists, as  Princeton won a key Ivy League game against Cornell 14-12.  

Word — Grant Werdesheim of the baseball team, who scored three runs. This one gets a bit of an asterisk, since his teammate Jake Kernodle also had three. 

 * Rugby, Softball, Spain, Women's Tennis

This would all be multiple winners this weekend. 

As TB said, the women's rugby team went 5-1 at the event in Florida and the softball team went 3-0 at home against Brown. 

Spain refers to Jadon Spain, who won the 100 meter dash at the Sam Howell meet and who also teamed with Greg Foster, Jackson Clarke and Charlie Sexton to win the 4x100 relay. 

Women's tennis? The Tigers went 2-0, defeating Harvard and Dartmouth to improve to 3-0 in the Ivy League, tied with Columbia for first place.