Two Championships

Today is Election Day.

TigerBlog endorses voting for candidates who run on a platform of removing every lawn sign within 24 hours of the big day, whether they win or lose. 

And please, no more political commercials for a long time. 

"My opponent voted to take your dog away."
"Oh yeah, well my opponent was mean to a kid on the playground when he was six."

If you are a political candidate, or an NFL team, or speech and debate squad or pretty much any entity anywhere that is looking to win, you might want to call up Kaitlyn Chen and get her on your side. TigerBlog will say this again, as he has so many times before:

WINNING FOLLOWS KAITLYN CHEN EVERYWHERE SHE GOES

If you need more proof, TigerBlog refers you to the recently completed WNBA playoffs, in which the second-year Golden State Valkyries defeated the Atlanta Dream in seven games to win the title. Guess who is on Golden State? That would be Kaitlyn Chen. 

A winner everywhere she goes. Congratulations to Kaitlyn Chen ‘24 and the @valkyries on winning the @WNBA Championship! #ThisIsBallhalla ⚔️ https://t.co/Hgyrr2kN6G

— Princeton WBB (@PrincetonWBB) November 1, 2026

So with that, here is Chen's most recent six seasons of basketball:

2022: Princeton - Ivy League Champion/Ivy tournament champion, NCAA tournament second round
2023: Princeton - Ivy League Champion/Ivy tournament champion, NCAA tournament second round
2024: Princeton - Ivy League Champion/Ivy tournament champion, NCAA tournament first round
2025: UConn - NCAA Champion
2025: Golden State Valkyries - WNBA expansion team (makes playoffs)
2026: Golden State Valkyries - WNBA Champion 

Given that she went from UConn to her rookie season within a few months, that means that in the last five years she's played on three teams and won five championships.  

That's a lot of winning. And in case you think she's just along for the ride, she 1) is the only player in any sport ever to be a three-time Ivy tournament Most Outstanding Player, 2) started every game for UConn's national championship team and 3) is one of the top players off the bench in the WNBA. 

Her minutes weren't as high in the playoffs as they had been in the regular season, but that didn't matter.  She also has to be just about the best teammate there's ever been. If you watched any of Golden State's games, you could clearly see that. TigerBlog thinks that Chen's incredible enthusiasm actually fuels her teams and is part of why they always seem to win. 

Elsewhere in "Princeton Women Win Championships" news, the women's cross country team won its third straight Ivy League Heptagonal title this past Friday as the meet made it way to Attleboro, Mass. 

Unlike the Valkyries, who were pushed to the absolute limit to win their title, the Heps women's race was completely one-sided. Princeton had runners finish 2-3-5-10-13, finishing with 33 points, or 39 fewer than second-place Penn. 

 This is from the story on goprincetontigers.com: 

Emma de Jong was the first Tiger across the finish line, taking the runner-up spot with a time of 20:25.1. This is her third-consecutive Heps she has scored in, moving up six places from her eighth-place finish last year. Last year's individual champion Anna McNatt followed right behind de Jong at 20:28.5 in third for the 2-3 finish. Both runners' times made it onto the all-time top 6,000-meter records list with de Jong in 15th and McNatt tied at 19th. They were each awarded First Team All-Ivy honors. The next runner to score for the Tigers was Caroline Barton clocking in at 20:36.5 to secure a fifth-place finish for the second year in a row. First-year Lux Burgin was the fourth Tiger across the finish line, making an impressive Heps debut with a time of 20:45.4. Burgin kicked out 22 runners from 2K-6K to finish in 10th place. Hannah Riggins rounded out the Tiger scoring with a time of 20:53.3, securing a 13th place finish.

And hey, speaking of winning, does the name "Burgin" ring a bell? Lux Burgin is the younger sister of men's lacrosse senior Wilder Burgin. The women's cross country championship was the fourth Ivy title in family history, which also includes an NCAA championship from this past spring. 

Next up for the women will be the NCAA Regional meet, which will be held at Lehigh a week from Friday.