Another Trophy

The prologue of TigerBlog's book on the first 50 years of women's athletics at Princeton centered on the women's lightweight rowing team.

Specifically, TB wrote about how the team found out it was the No. 1 team in the rankings on the same day that Covid shut down the season and then how the team managed to stay focused and maintain a team culture and spirit through the pandemic. 

The women's lightweight rowing team was one of a handful of Princeton spring teams who were able to compete. Remember the Phases? The women's lightweights made it through all four of them, all the way to the IRA national championship.

The three members of that team that TB spoke with were universal in their sadness that the Class of 2020 missed out on the rest of that season and also how supportive that group had been for them as they moved forward. For TB, their ability to do what they did last year was a sign that Princeton Athletics was reawakening.

Now it's 12 months later. Princeton has played nearly a complete athletic year and tied its record by having 16 teams win conference championships (13 Ivy titles, plus three that don't compete in Ivy sports). 

The reawakening was real.

And so it was something of a different landscape for the women's lightweights as they lined up at the start line yesterday for these IRA championships. This time it was against a full field, as opposed to the handful of teams who competed last year.

The result, though, was the same. 

Princeton won another national championship Sunday on Mercer Lake, this time building a three-second lead and then winning by 1.5 seconds over Georgetown and Stanford. Princetons first varsity 8 boat featured Margaret Murphy, Sarah Fry, Sarah Polson, Daisy Devore, Lily Feinerman, Cecelia Sommerfield, Kalena Blake, Rebecca Mays and Nathalie Verlinde.

 The Tigers added a win in the 2x from Amelia Boehle and Kasey Shashaty to win the overall points championship for the first time ever. 

A day that we and @tigerwlights will never forget … 🧡🖤🏆@Princeton | @IRARowingChamps pic.twitter.com/uPlry6kIwE

— Princeton Tigers (@PUTIGERS) June 5, 2022

The Princeton heavyweight men's four won its national championship as well, joining the open women varsity 4, who did so a week ago at the NCAA women's regatta. The men's heavyweight 4 boat of Greg Le Meur, Matthew Wagner, Emmett Infante, Sam Kleiner and Eleanor Bauer held off Washington, who made a late charge but fell short.

This was a quote from Bauer, the coxswain:

"Coming into the last 750 meters of the race, I could hear the Washington coxswain call their final push before the sprint," said Bauer, the coxswain. "I told my guys, 'They're trying to move, we need to go now.'" 

That's a great quote from a coxswain. Or a quarterback.

As for the lightweight women, Princeton was the heavy favorite and finished the year unbeaten. It was by no means something to be taken for granted, of course.

 TB thought this quote from head coach Paul Rassam summed things up perfectly:

"I think from the outside it can look really easy when you're winning. What this team has pushed through these couple of years, it's not been easy. We have a super resilient, determined group of athletes that kept pushing forward no matter what was going on."

He's right about what his team has pushed through the last few years. And, as TB said, there is an important - and easy to overlook - relevance to the momentum that was created by the competitions that happened to end the 2021 spring.

Its easy to forgot now how the 2020-21 women's lightweights began their season on erg machines set up outdoors on driveways. They had no idea if they were going to get out on the water at all, let alone against another school.

When they finally did, they picked up where the left off before the shutdown in 2020. And they haven't let up at all since. 

Yesterday at Mercer Lake, they were back again, as national champion, a no-doubt-about-it best-in-country team that had a perfect season end the way every teams hopes it will.

God Save The Queen

TigerBlog watched some of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee yesterday.

He loves a good flyover, and this was a flyover like no other. Apparently the only person who wasn't mesmerized by it was Prince Louis, the four-year-old great-grandson of Queen Elizabeth II.

The platinum part refers to 70 years, which means that she has been the Queen for the 54-nation Commonwealth since 1952. In case you're wondering, she's been the Queen since before the Ivy League was formalized, which wasn't until four years later.

Interestingly, the 70th anniversary of her coronation will be a year from now, as she had her official ceremony on June 2, 1953. She became the Queen immediately on the death of her father, George VI, on Feb. 6, 1952. 

You know what happened two months and one day earlier? Dick Kazmaier won the Heisman Trophy.

Yes, she's been on the job for a long time. It's actually a job she didn't figure to have when she was born, since her father's brother was the king. It was only when he abdicated because he could not marry his American divorcee lover after less than a year (the shortest reign in British history) that her father took over, and now she is the longest serving monarch ever.

Are you a fan of the Royal Family? The United States, of course, fought a revolution against the Crown because it didn't want to have a monarchy. There is a charm to the history and traditions of the Royal Family, though at the same time, it's a group that's had more than its share of negative moments in recent decades. 

As TB once wrote, the worst thing that ever happened to the Royal Family was modern media, which showed them to be just like anyone else, with good points and bad points and family members who are good and others who aren't. The Royal Family became humanized, and that's not what anyone is looking for from kings and queens.

On the other hand, Mrs. Queen seems like an amiable sort who has certainly brought a lot of goodwill to the job for these past 70 years. She deserved her day, complete with the flyover.

Perhaps there is a member of the Royal Family who likes American college basketball. If so, perhaps someone will be in attendance at the London Basketball Classic, where Princeton's men's team will compete this November along with Manhattan, Northeastern and a fourth team to be named.

The tournament will be held at the Copper Box Arena at the Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park, the site of the basketball games for the 2012 Olympics. The games will be played during Thanksgiving weekend, which of course is not Thanksgiving in England.

When TB first saw the news that Princeton would be playing there, he immediately thought of the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year, Princeton's Tosan Evbuomwan, who is an English native. Evbuomwan is from Newcastle, which is a five-hour or so ride to London, going north to south. Even if it's not in his backyard, it has to be a huge thrill for him to know that he's getting play at home as a senior.

TB was with the men's basketball team when it played outside of the United States (in regular season games) back in November of 1999, when the Tigers played Ohio University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was part of a full day of basketball celebration that included Canadian high school and college teams and culminated with the Princeton-Ohio game. 

Princeton lost that one 68-60, but Chris Young had one of the great stat lines in program history: 14 points, eight rebounds, nine blocked shots (still the school record), six assists. Young, of course, went on to pitch in the Major Leagues and is now the GM of the Texas Rangers. 

For everyone on that team, TB assumes that they all remember getting to play in a different country. TB also assumes that the same will be true this time around. It's a great opportunity for an amazing experience.

As for this weekend, a reminder that it's the IRA rowing championships on Mercer Lake. Princeton will be represented by the top-ranked women's lightweights, who are the defending champion, and the men's heavyweights and lightweights, who will be racing to reach the medal stand as well.

For all the information, click HERE, HERE and HERE.

"Let's-Go-Ti-Gers, clap, clap, clap-clap-clap"

The chant of "Let's Go Tigers" started in the vast sea of orange and black that was behind the Princeton men's lacrosse bench at Rentschler Field Saturday night.

It went like this: up on the "let's" and then down on the "go" and then up on the "ti" and then down on the "gers," followed by five claps, or stomps on the bleachers, the first two of which were spaced by twice the time as the last three. Then it was repeated, and repeated, and repeated.

It was almost 9 at night, or about four hours later than NCAA semifinal game between the Tigers and top-seeded Maryland was supposed to end. It was about the longest day in the history of program, beginning when the team arrived around 1 or so for its scheduled 2:30 start. Next up was a lightning delay in the first semifinal between Rutgers and Cornell, which ended up stretching for nearly four hours. 

During that time, Princeton waited a while. Then it was back to the hotel. Then it was a second pregame meal. Then it was back to the stadium. 

The game itself didn't go Princeton's way, as Maryland won 13-8 and then defeated Cornell 9-7 in Monday's final. When the game Saturday ended, Princeton went into its usual postgame stretching routine, and that's when the final "Let's Go Tigers" chant began.

This was after the game, after the loss. It wasn't so much an exhortation to make the next play, to score the next goal, or for that matter to win the next game. 

As TigerBlog listened to the chant, he tried to decipher its meaning in the moment. It wasn't even "Thank You Tigers," which would have been a salute to what the team had accomplished this season.

This was "Let's Go Tigers." What did it mean in the season-ending moment like that? 

TigerBlog came up with two answers. 

First, it was a call for the future. This season was a huge step. Now it's time to build on that, the Princeton crowd was saying. 

Second, and most obviously, the crowd didn't want to see it end. Let's Go Tigers. Let's Go Tigers. Keep chanting it, and maybe the game isn't really over.

Of course it was. With the end of the game, the 2022 Princeton men's lacrosse team had added itself to the great history of the program has put together in May.

This was an amazing year for a team that began the season unranked coming off the Covid year of no lacrosse. This was a team that had 10 seniors who took the year off to come back for one more ride, and it was a team where half of the 50-player roster had never played in a game before and where another 15 had played in five games or fewer.

Facing a gauntlet of a schedule that would see the Tigers play 12 of their 16 games against teams that would reach the NCAA tournament, including at least one against each of the other seven teams who would be seeded in the top eight, Princeton finished 11-5 and reached Championship Weekend for the first time in 18 years.

Princeton missed the Ivy League tournament deep down in the tiebreakers but used the time to regroup. The NCAA tournament saw wins over Boston University and Yale to reach Hartford, where the opponent would be the powerful Terps.

Once the game started after all the delays, it did so on what became a perfect spring weather night. The challenge was a big one, as Maryland was rested and ready and playing to join the greatest teams college lacrosse has seen with a perfect record.

Princeton played hard, that's for sure. The moment didn't get too big. The Tigers gave it everything they have. Sometimes you do that and the other team is just a little better. That's what happened Saturday night.

It didn't take anything away from the love that was shown to this team from the friends, families and alums who made the trip and waited out the weather. This was the kind of team that was easy to root for, and it was the kind of team that rallied every generation of the program together.

The foundation is in place now to build off of what this team did, even with the significant graduation losses. At the same time, there are never any guarantees. TB would not have ever dreamed when he left M&T Bank Stadium in 2004 that it would be until 2022 when the Tigers would be back in Championship Weekend.

Regardless of the future or the past, this was a special team. It was a team in every sense of the word. It was a team that made some serious statements about itself along the way. When the season finally reached its conclusion, nobody was ready to leave. That's when, and why, the chant broke out the way it did.

Let's Go Tigers. Let's Go Tigers.

More Happy Tigers

TigerBlog wrote about Jesse Marsch and the Princeton women's open rowing team yesterday, and then something dawned on him while he was out on his bike in the afternoon.

Marsch, the Leeds United coach in the English Premier League, and the Princeton women's open both had weekends to celebrate, and yet they were sort of inverse celebrations, if such a thing exists.

For Marsch and his team, the celebration was avoiding relegation. For the Princeton women, it was finishing with a bronze medal at the NCAA championships. 

In other words, one was celebrating finishing in the top three, and the other was celebrating avoiding the bottom three. TB thought about going back to rewrite what he wrote yesterday to say that, but by then it was too late, since most of the people who were going to read probably already had.

Besides, with the theme of happy Tigers from yesterday, it was worth mentioning them again. And, while he's at it, there are still more Tigers who are happy to still be competing, even as May has turned to June, which it has done today.

The end of the men's lacrosse team's run and the NCAA women's rowing championships crossed two more teams off the list of those who are still competing. There are now five remaining for the 2021-22 academic year.

There are the IRA rowing championships this Friday through Sunday, which will see the men's lightweight and heavyweight crews and the women's lightweights compete on Mercer Lake for national titles. By the way, today is already Wednesday, as opposed to Tuesday, after yesterday felt all day like it was Monday.

The women's lightweight rowers are the No. 1 ranked team in the country, as well as the defending IRA champion. The Tigers win last year was a perfect way to come back from the layoff for Covid and to cap off the celebration of the 50th year of women's athletics at Princeton.

Princeton's lightweight women most recently have won the Eastern Sprints and then beat a few open boats to take the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia. The heavyweight men were third at Eastern Sprints, and the lightweight men were fifth. 

If you've never been to an IRA championship event, it's definitely worth attending, with boats and rowers everywhere. Mercer Lake also is a great spot to see the racing, as it's a fairly wide open few of the entire 2,000 meters.

The last time TB was there, he stood near the midway point. It's pretty wild — and intense — to see the boats come into view and go by as the finish looms ahead of them. You have to be in absolutely ridiculous shape to be a rower, and that means physical and mental shape.

The rowers will finish their seasons close to home. The track and field runners who qualified for the NCAA championships will do so on the other side of the country.

The NCAA regionals in track and field were held this past weekend in Indiana, and Princeton will be sending 18 athletes to the championships, at historic Hayward Field at the University of Oregon. Hayward Field, which is pretty much the most revered site in American track and field, dates back to 1921, though the current facility was torn down and rebuilt only two years ago.

Just like the stadium itself, the Princeton track and field program has taken something traditionally venerated and improved upon it recently. The current state of the program, particularly on the men's side, is nothing short of amazing.

In fact, Princeton will be sending 16 men to Eugene, this after the Tigers finished fifth in the country in the indoor championships this past winter, with all eight Princeton competitors' earning first-team All-American honors. 

The women will be represented by Kate Joyce in the javelin and Caroline Timm in the 1,500 meters. The men? They have so many going that it's easier just to link to the full recaps of the regionals, which you can see HERE and HERE.

TB has never been to the NCAA track and field championships, though those who have talk about just how incredible an experience it is. The championships this year run from June 8-11, and goprincetontigers.com (and TB) will have full coverage of them.

Princetonians Having Fun

For this past weekend of Princeton Athletics and Princeton athletes, very few were happier than Jesse Marsch.

If you don't know who Jesse Marsch is, he's the former Princeton men's soccer player who has gone on to an extraordinarily successful career as a coach. These days he finds himself as the head man of Leeds United, where he has become the second American ever to be the head coach of an English Premier League team.

Who was the first? Bob Bradley, who also happens to be a Princeton alum. In other words, if you are an American and didn't play soccer at Princeton, then you've never been an EPL head coach.

Marsch came to Leeds in late February, when the team was on the verge of relegation. In fact, it was still on the verge of relegation up until the very end, when the team got an away win over Brentford to finish in the magical spot of 17th among the 20 teams.

The bottom three move down to the Championship Division. The top three there move up. Leeds has lived to see another season in the Premier League.

Relegation, by the way, is crazy stuff. The way the EPL works is wild in the first place, with no playoffs, a spot in the Champions League for the top four and a ticket to a lower level for the bottom three. American sports could never handle that. 

Congratulations to Jesse. Much like Bob Bradley, he has had to overcome bias against Americans who coach in the top positions in Europe, and much like Bob Bradley, he has done so.

As TigerBlog said, very few Princetonians had more fun this weekend than Jesse. The women rowers of Princeton were among them.

Princeton open rowing had a great showing in Florida at the NCAA championships. Since the NCAA began having a women's open rowing regatta in 1997, Princeton is one of three schools who has reached the event every year. That included last year, when the Tigers made it after getting a really, really late start due to the pandemic.

This time around, Princeton came in off of an Ivy League championship and was primed for a big weekend at the NCAA meet. And that's exactly what happened.

All three Princeton boats qualified Saturday for the grand finals Sunday. And then Princeton had itself a huge Sunday.

It started with the varsity 4 boat, which won the national championship in that event.

Relive the final moments of the Varsity Four's National Championship race ... ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/0KPCz3pGO4

— Princeton Open Women (@princetonwcrew) May 29, 2022

Princeton's varsity 4 boat consisted of Roopa Venkatraman, Hailey Mead, Catherine Garrett Natasha Neitzell and Lauren Johnson. That group became the fourth Princeton boat to win gold at the NCAA championships, along with the 1997 second varsity and the first varsities of 2006 and 2011.

The varsity 4 fell behind Texas before making a run in the second 500 meters, building a lead of 1.4 seconds at the midway point. The final margin would be a hair less, and 1.2 seconds over second-place Ohio State, third-place Texas and fourth-place Stanford. Yes, the days of women's rowing as a sport for Eastern schools plus Washington and California are long over.

After Princeton's second varsity would finish fifth, it was time for the first varsity final. Texas was the heavy favorite, and the Longhorns sprinted away to win by nearly five seconds over Stanford, who came in second. Princeton was a strong third, ahead of Cal, for its best finish since the 2013 boat came in second.

As for the team points, Texas and Stanford tied for first, but Texas had the tiebreaker because of it's first varsity 8 win. The Longhorns, who didn't even qualify for the NCAA race until 2015, have now won consecutive national titles. 

Princeton came in third overall, its best showing since a second-place overall finish in 1997.

It was a remarkable performance by the Tigers, to be sure. When schools like Texas and Stanford go all in on a sport, they have a way of making it difficult for the competition. For Princeton to continue to do what it does in women's rowing is amazing, and it's a testament to head coach Lori Dauphiny and the athletes she is able to bring in and train. Rowing is, in many ways, the ultimate in team sports, with four or eight rowers in a boat who have to be completely in sync. Making that happen is not easy. Having the success that Princeton just did is even tougher.

It was part of a weekend of Princetonians who were having fun, and there were others ...

Championship Weekend

The Princeton men's lacrosse team was getting ready to play its April 2 game at Brown when the Tigers were milling around outside their lockerroom, inside the Bears' basketball arena.

TigerBlog saw shortstick defensive midfielder Beau Pederson and told him that despite TB's recommendation, he had not made the Inside Lacrosse midseason All-American team. There was always the actual USILA team to come out at the end of the season though.

That team was announced yesterday. As it turned out, it wasn't after the end of the Princeton season, and Pederson was on it, where he absolutely belonged.

If anything, he was sold a little short as he was a third-team All-American.

In many ways, Pederson is sort of a microcosm of the Princeton men's team's season. He started out on nobody's radar, as did the team as a whole, and now he is recognized among the best in the country, as are the Tigers.

The 6-3, 205 pound Pederson has had a monster year, one that can't really be summed up in statistics. He's had the kind of season that you have to have seen up close to really appreciate, and so TB was really happy for him that he got the recognition he richly deserved.

Pederson and the Tigers began the year unranked. They are now one of four teams who are still playing in Division I men's lacrosse, as they have reached the program's 11th Final Four and first in 18 years. 

The national semifinals will be played at Rentschler Field in West Hartford (it's the home of UConn football) tomorrow. Game 1 is at noon, as sixth-seeded Rutgers plays seventh-seeded Cornell, followed by the game between No. 5 Princeton and top-seeded and unbeaten Maryland at 2:30.

The winners of those games will play Monday at 1 for the national championship. In between it'll be RIT and Union for the Division III title and Mercy and Tampa for the Division II title. 

Princeton has been dominant defensively in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, having defeated Boston University 12-5 and Yale 14-10. The Tigers now face the biggest challenge there is, having to figure out the 16-0 Terps, with their six Premier Lacrosse League draftees and 12 All-Americans.

Maryland is loaded all right. The Terps are the No. 1 scoring offense team in the country, the No. 1 shooting percentage team in the country and the No. 1 scoring margin team in the country, among other things. 

So should the Tigers bother making the trip? Yes.

Princeton lost 15-10 to Maryland back on Feb. 26 in College Park. The team that played that game is not the same team that will be there for the rematch, not by a long shot. Princeton has made some position changes, gelled as a team, weathered a two-game slump to end the regular season and now is playing the best it's played all season.

How can Princeton beat Maryland? Well, Princeton needs to get another big NCAA effort from goalie Erik Peters, who has saved it at just short of 70 percent the last two weeks. Princeton needs to balance possessions, which means winning face-offs and/or causing turnovers (the Tigers are third in the country at doing so) and getting the ground balls (the Tigers are first in the country at that). 

Princeton took a season low 23 shots in the first game against the Terps and still got to 10 goals. The  Tigers average more than twice that many (46.3 per game). Sometimes scoring is a volume shooting business. 

Both teams come in with confidence, the kind that comes with winning games at this time of year. NCAA tournament experience favors Maryland in a big way, as the Terps are playing to win the championship that got away by a single goal last year. 

Princeton is in its first NCAA tournament since 2012 and first Final Four since 2004. This team is certainly enjoying the moment and getting the most out of the experience.

The Tigers play with toughness and togetherness. They are athletic. They have great leadership, from the senior class and coaching staff. They have depth. They have no real weaknesses.

Is Maryland a great team? Of course. There are some who are mentioning this team with the best of all time.

That just makes this an even more intriguing date for Princeton. There was pressure in Round 1 to not end the season with three straight losses. There was pressure in Round 2 to overcome an opponent that nobody on the team had ever beaten.

Now? There's no pressure, only opportunity.

The Tigers and the Terrapins, tomorrow at 2:30. It's been a remarkable season so far for this team, who a year ago watched everyone else play. This is their time, and they're making the most of it.

The New Lead Singer

The task that Jenn Cook is undertaking is a daunting one.

It was announced yesterday that Cook has been named the successor to Chris Sailer as the head coach of the women's lacrosse team. When TigerBlog first heard the news, he thought of Cook's most daunting task:  

Can she read the Lawrenceville Home Improvement spot on the podcast as well as Chris always did?

TB is kidding of course, but as in all jokes, there are kernels of truth. He doesn't wonder if Cook can actually do the live read obviously. He just is aware of the difference between being the associate head coach and the head coach.

Jenn Cook is now the lead singer. She's going from being Steven Van Zandt to being Bruce Springsteen, as it were. The E Street Band wouldn't have been the greatest ever without Van Zandt, but it's still Springsteen's show.

It's Jenn Cook's show now too. That means making the ultimate decisions. That means being the face of the program. That even means doing the podcasts.

When any assistant steps into the head coaching spot, it's a big jump. In case's like this, it's a bit different.

Cook is mega-prepared to run the Tiger program. She's been a part of it for 10 years, the last five as the associate head coach. The team has won seven straight Ivy League championships, and Cook's fingerprints have been all over every single one of them. 

She's recruited. She's coached. She's scheduled, games, practice times, fields, all of it. She's made sure there were uniforms. She's worked in player development. She kept the team culture going during a pandemic that saw 19 of the 32 players take the year off.

There are no surprises within this program for her. She knows exactly what to expect. She understands the details.

It's just that now she's the one with the mic at the center of the stage.

TB is happy for her. She's earned this, and she's clearly ready. 

What's different about this move is that Cook is taking over for Sailer, who spent 36 years as the former lead singer. Just seeing "Princeton head women's lacrosse coach" and not following it with "Sailer" seems a bit odd.

There have only been three head coaches in the program prior to Cook: Penny Hinckley in the early 1970s, Betty Logan after that and then Sailer, whose first season was 1987. Sailer coached Princeton for seven seasons more than Pete Carril coached the men's basketball team.

It is never easy to take over for the legend, but Cook knows what she's getting into. She had her official introduction yesterday, and she addressed that. She spoke about her friends all told her they'd be big shoes to fill, and she understood that.

She also smiled broadly as she started her remarks, which was a dead giveaway about how invested she is in Princeton women's lacrosse and how much she wanted this opportunity.

The team she inherits has a lot to replace. The Tigers graduated 10 seniors, five of whom were four-year starters. She has to replace Kyla Sears, the program's all-time leading scorer, and then four others on the other side of the field, with three starting defenders (Mary Murphy, Olivia Pugh and Marge Donovan) and the goalie (Sam Fish) all having received diplomas Tuesday as well.

It will be a team that returns a great deal on offense and some young defenders who will have bigger roles. Cook talked about that as well.

John Mack, the Ford Family Director of Athletics, spoke about how he wasn't looking for another Chris Sailer. He was looking for someone who understood Princeton and what the athletic department is about and was her own person.

He mentioned a meeting he had with Cook when he first started last fall and how she felt that she could be the next head coach. 

He just didn't realize how soon he'd have to make that call. 

There's a new lead singer with Princeton women's lacrosse. She hit all the right notes yesterday at her introduction. Now the real work begins.

A Persistent One

The parties and the P-Rade had given way to the pomp and pageantry as so much of what makes Princeton such a special place played out over the last week.

Now it was nearing the end Commencement, the 275th such event the University has had, and Princeton president Chris Eisgruber was addressing the Class of 2022.

He spoke of "the finish line," which is a term that TigerBlog had used so often — exclusively to himself, mind you — during the last four years. Commencement, 2022. The finish line, as it were, for his own daughter.

There she was yesterday, one of the 1,234 undergraduates who in fact were crossing their own finish line. How did she get there? Eisgruber also had that covered perfectly, this time with a single word:

Persistence. 

In fact his speech was entitled "The Power of Persistence." Each word he said on the subject resonated so strongly with TigerBlog.

His daughter had undertaken a daunting double as a Princeton undergraduate: mechanical and aerospace engineering and varsity lacrosse. How did she reach her finish line? Just as the University president said, she persisted.

Her best quality is her persistence, her grit. She takes on challenges, and she grinds her way through them. Ultimately, she cleared every hurdle, as well as a Princeton diploma, two Ivy League championship rings in the two full seasons her class had and a lifetime of best friends and memories, all while having her experience interrupted by a pandemic.

TigerBlog wondered if maybe this was too much for her. He never admitted to her, of course. He just wondered. Would she reach the finish line, he'd ask himself over and over. He didn't even look up when Commencement would be until the very last minute he could, for fear of getting ahead of the process and being disappointed if she didn't get there.

Ultimately, he should have realized that her persistence would win out.

TB was asked a bunch of times yesterday how he felt watching his daughter graduate from Princeton. He was moved by it. He was so proud, so happy for her. That doesn't even do it justice.

This was so special for him to watch and soak in. Every one of the graduates earned their place at the finish line, and they all had life-altering experiences that they will take with them forever. They all have a story to tell.

Here's hers:

She went to nursery school a few hundred yards away from Princeton Stadium, where Commencement was held, at U-League Nursery School. She went to her first bonfire when she was six years old (and broke her collarbone in front of Nassau Hall). She went to field hockey and lacrosse camps there when she was little. 

She had a chance to go to some Division III schools to play lacrosse, most notably MIT, but she wanted Princeton instead. On that December day in 2017 when she found out she was admitted, she logged on to her computer with her father on the phone and shouted "I got in" about 10 times. 

That afternoon TB stopped at the equipment room in Caldwell Field House and asked the staff if they could give him any shirt at all that said "Princeton" and had the No. 22 on it. After all, she'd be in the Class of 2022.

Who knew what was to come? Courtney Banghart, then the Princeton women's basketball coach, gave her this advice: "Never worry about your GPA. Just get through." It was then, TB supposes, that he first began to think of a "finish line." Also, because of that, he chuckled when Eisgruber broke the bad news to the graduates that there is little correlation between GPA and future success. Courtney was right. 

TB saw his daughter at freshman athlete orientation, and he's pretty sure that was the first time that he figured she wanted nobody to know they were related. Eventually, her teammates figured it out, but he kept his distance as much as he could for someone who, you know, did a podcast each week with her coach.

She had her rough times, of course, academically and athletically. She found her way through it. Persistence, remember?

By the time she was starting to feel comfortable, Covid struck. She made the difficult choice to stay enrolled. She finished her engineering requirements. She wrote her thesis: "Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence Measurements of CH2O in Ozone Assisted Cool Flames." Yeah, TB has no idea what that means either.

She became a member of Cannon club. She made a wide circle of friends. She matured as a lacrosse player, a teammate and a student. She learned and grew. She embodied the very best of what Princeton Athletics is trying to teach and what Princeton University is all about. And she did all this on her own.

Through it all, TB was on the same campus, able to see it all with a much closer view than most parents get of their child's college experience. Ultimately, she'd come to tell him that she liked knowing he was there, even if her eye rolling for four years suggested otherwise.

As TB watched Commencement, all of that went flying through his head. He remembered every detail. He remembered every trying moment, every tearful phone call, every laugh, every achievement. He remembered her one collegiate lacrosse statistic, a ground ball against Columbia her freshman year, and how he had entered it into the stat program. He remembered every cold weather game where she stood shivering on the sideline. He remembered the stresses of finals. He remembered all of it.

She picked up her diploma back at her Residential College, which in her case was Forbes. There was a reception on the patio there, just as there had been on the day he'd dropped her off in 2018. She teared up that day, nervous, anxious, a bit scared, a bit overwhelmed. 

She beamed yesterday on that same spot, as she stood there with a Princeton University diploma. She knew what it took to reach her finish line. She knew what she'd been through. 

TigerBlog? He tried to sort out the emotions. Ultimately, he guesses the main emotion was marvel, if that is an emotion. He sat there and watched his daughter, and he marveled at the magnitude of what she had done her at Princeton. He smiled. He laughed. He also beamed. He even cried a little. He was in awe.

Mostly, he marveled. 

So wherever you are, raise a glass of something to salute TB's daughter. You've known her first as Little Miss TigerBlog and then, as she grew to six feet tall, as Miss TigerBlog.

Now you know her as Annie Price, Princeton graduate, Class of 2022. She crossed the finish line yesterday.

Annie, your persistence has paid off. 

Dancing With Vietta

The first time TigerBlog saw Vietta Johnson, she was just a face in a small box on an eight-screen Zoom call.

It was the heart of the pandemic, and TB had been invited to be on the Class of 1982 Zoom to talk about women's athletic history. He was in the early stages of writing his book on the first 50 years of women's athletics at Princeton (cheap plug- you can order it HERE).

Vietta wasn't one of the leaders of the event. She simply spoke near the end, during the Q&A portion of the evening. 

TB's first thought was "whoa, that's an impressive person with a lot of energy." He had no idea just how right he was.

He immediately decided to include Vietta in the book. When he interviewed her, she spoke about her time as women's track athlete and so much more, including her childhood in Brooklyn and her path to becoming one of the few Black orthopedic surgeons in the country at the time. She talked about justice and fairness and connecting with people on a human level. She talked about the hurdles she had to overcome and how she did it.

When TigerBlog has given presentations of his book, he has mentioned that the chapter on Vietta is what the book is all about. It's about her time as Princeton student-athlete and how it has shaped her ever since, and it's about the impact that Princeton women's athletes have made here.

Since he first met her, TB and Vietta have been in touch a few times, including a year ago, when she was honored with the Class of 1967 Citizen-Athlete Award. He had never, though, met her in person.

That's why when he got a text two weeks ago that Vietta was going to be at Reunions, he made it a point that he would find a way to connect, even though he'd be away for almost the entire time at the men's lacrosse quarterfinals at Hofstra.

It was a 90-degree day out on Long Island, and TB was completely wiped out and sweaty from standing on the sideline in his black lacrosse pullover (long sleeves at that). Still, he was not going to miss out on saying hi to Vietta after he got back to Princeton.

That's what he envisioned. A quick hello, how are you?

That's not how it turned out.

Nope. Vietta was having none of that. And so it was that TB found himself at the 40th Reunion tent, right up at the front, dancing with Vietta Johnson as the band played (really well by the way) "My Girl," the Temptations hit.

You can ask pretty much anyone TB has ever met if he likes to dance, or if he's any good at it. The answer to both would be "no," but only once that person stopped laughing.

And yet this time, there he was, out there in front. It was the Vietta Johnson effect. She's simply a force of nature. A wonderful, positive, energetic, force of nature.

That was TB's Reunions experience, standing in the 40th tent and dancing with Vietta, while also seeing some familiar faces (loyal reader Duncan Yin, who was Vietta's 1982 classmate, among them). 

What was your Reunions experience? Judging by what TB saw on campus over the weekend, he's guessing it was overwhelmingly positive.

After two years of virtual Reunions, how could it not be? As TB wrote last week, he was sorry to have missed the P-Rade (though the lacrosse win was a good reason).

In general, it was just amazing to see the campus hopping the way it was and to see everyone back together again. 

Reunions started the night of the Gary Walters Princeton Varsity Club Senior Banquet, as always. As always, it ran through Saturday night, and in fact TB got back to campus just in time for the fireworks. 

Sunday night was TB's first-ever prom in Jadwin Gym. He was at Class Day yesterday for the first time as well.

These are the traditions that mean the most to Princeton. They go back a very, very long way, and the fact that they were taken away for two years only made them that much more important when they returned these last few days.

Today is Commencement. TB has been to a lot of them during his time here. It's always been one of his favorite events, though he does have a sense this one will be a little more special.

A Men's Lacrosse Reunions Party On Long Island

The ball was hurled high in the air. The Princeton men's lacrosse team raced onto the field. The scoreboard said "Princeton 14, Yale 10." The clock said ... "0.6."

The official nearest to where the ball went out of bounds could have tried to clear the field and have a restart. Instead, he signaled to let the clock run out. He knew. Everyone at Hofstra's Shuart Stadium knew.

There was no holding back this party from starting.

It was one 18 years in the making. The win over Yale Saturday vaulted Princeton into the Final Four for 11th time in program history but the first since 2004, as the Tigers will now play Saturday in the semifinals against top-seeded and unbeaten Maryland.

Everywhere you looked on the Princeton side, you saw former players, alums who never had the chance to play on this stage, who were locked in on how much they wanted it for the current generation. There were professional players, international players, former All-Americans, an army of All-Ivy picks — and they all were 100 percent invested in these Tigers.

It was like a separate Reunions tent was set up on Long Island.

It's not always easy to be the modern iteration of a program with one of the greatest traditions the sport has ever seen. In Princeton's case, that tradition means six NCAA championships and 10 previous trips to Championship weekend, all of which occurred between 1992 and 2004.

It can go one of two ways really. That tradition can weigh heavily, perhaps coupled with some unreasonable expectations of those who built the tradition. Or it can serve as the foundation of the program, with a base of alums who are supportive at every turn.

For Princeton men's lacrosse it's the latter. It was clear Saturday at Hofstra, on a sweltering afternoon, just how much the program means to all those who have gone through it. Those championship teams remain its cornerstone, and as the years have gone along, those groups have added everyone who has come along since.

They were all there Saturday, ready to help will the current group to take that next big step. For the current members of the program, they're all aware of what came before them. They speak about it. They ask about it. They embrace it.

Together, they all made it happen Saturday, against a team that had been a nemesis in every sense of the word. Matt Madalon, in fact, had never beaten the Bulldogs as head coach heading into the game, including a 14-12 loss earlier this season in New Haven.

TigerBlog spent a lot of time around this team during the week, and he picked up on something that was obvious. Confidence. This team was confident.

Not cocky. Not phony tough. They were confident, in themselves, in their teammates, in their gameplan. You could sense it. 

When Yale went up 3-1 in the first quarter, there was no panic. When Yale kept cutting it to two goals in the third quarter, Princeton simply answered with one of its own. A team with no postseason experience until a week before played with poise and composure and grit.

This was a team win in every sense of the word. Nine different Tigers scored. Eight different longsticks and four shorties played. Three different face-off men took the draws, and two of them won six each. 

There were standouts, of course.

Goalie Erik Peters was sensational, with 15 saves and 10 goals against. In two NCAA games, Peters now has made 32 saves and allowed 15 goals, a save percentage of .681 after he was below 40 percent for the last two games of the regular season.

Defenseman George Baughan was again ridiculous, holding Yale's Matt Brandau to one goal and one assist after Brandau had torched the Tigers for five goals and three assists two months earlier. 

This wasn't about individual performances, though. This was about Princeton Men's Lacrosse, from top to bottom, from players to coaches to staff to alums to fans to everyone. This was their day.

Well, maybe it was about one person, actually. Maybe it was about the head coach, Matt Madalon, who has understood from Day 1 the history of the program and what it means to everyone associated with it. He's embraced it and cultivated it, and he built a team and a culture that has worked hard — and together —to get where they are now.

Even in the middle of the celebration in the locker room afterwards, his focus wasn't on reaching the Final Four. It certainly wasn't on him.

It was something that he said, that he might not even realize he said.

"One more week together as a group." 

They'll cherish it. And then they'll be ready to take their shot at the big prize on the biggest stage in lacrosse. They'll all be there together, the Tigers of the present and the past, just like it always is with this program.