For Marty Crotty, it has been a pleasure to coach his Princeton University men’s lightweight varsity 8 this spring.

“They have had a lot of consistency in terms of improvement,” said Princeton head coach Crotty, as he looks ahead to the Eastern Sprints, slated for May 17 on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass.

“They have had some really good practices. They just need to add a layer of speed over the next 10 days. They are easy to watch, they are easy to coach.”

With Princeton classes having ended on May 1, the rowers can accelerate their improvement with extra time on the water.

“If you look at HYP to the finals of sprints, from April 25 to May 17,

that is 22 days and you might have 15-16 practices in normal schedule when in school,” said Crotty.

“Over that 22-day period we will be out on the water 30-35 times with classes out. We spend a lot more time on the boat and they want to do that. We may talk about recovering from workouts but they are asking if they can row the next morning at 7 and I say I will be there. This time of year, the boat naturally gets better.”

The competition throughout the program has helped the Tigers get better across the board.

“It hasn’t stopped, the 2V and 3V had a tete-a-tete today,” said Crotty. “The ability and the depth come from the rowers getting equal attention; they are getting good, solid coaching and it is not just from me. Bill Manning is a real professional. Alex Mann went to the Institute of Rowing Leadership in Boston, he has been a real good addition to the staff. The improvement directly reflects the coaching and hard work being put in by everyone.”

The program’s group of senior rowers, Karthik Dhore, William Downing, Matt Drabick, Jason Elefant, Fabrizio Filho, Andrew Frazier, Steve Swanson, and captain Casey Ward, have set a positive tone.

“They are good leaders and good guys,” said Crotty. “Day in, day out, they set good examples of how to carry yourself and the way to react to the results of selection. The guys enjoy coming to the boathouse everyday. They strive to be better and they want to be on higher boats but they are able to keep that internal and exclude toxicity.”

Crotty has enjoyed seeing Ward’s emergence as a leader in the program.

“Ward has been leading for several years; he was leading more quietly than he has this year,” added Crotty.

“We have the largest team in our history; we are sending six 8s to sprints. We have never done that before, having that kind of crossover is a task and he does it on the fly. There are 16 freshmen and nine or 10 guys in the other classes and he deals with all of that. He knows what to bring to me and what not to bring to me.”

With his varsity 8 having produced an 8-3 regular season with one loss to Cornell and two defeats to Columbia as it has risen to the top-5 in the national rankings, Crotty knows his rowers will have to bring it this weekend to prevail at Eastern Sprints.

“I am excited to see how things go,” said Crotty. “Cornell is very good, Columbia is very good, both boats are flat out good. We have to continue to make progress and we have been doing that. It is decimal points, having this guy be a little better one day or that boat be a little better. It is incremental progress so that when you get on the bus to go to sprints you are confident enough to relax. To improve our position against the Ivies, we will need to have a great heat to make the final and have our best race of the season in the final.”