GRAND FEELING: Members of the Princeton University women’s open crew varsity 8 celebrate after they won the grand final at the Ivy League Championships last Sunday on Lake Carnegie. The ninth-ranked Tigers upset No. 1 Brown in the final, clocking a time of 6:28.039 over the 2,000-meter course with the Bears taking second in  6:31.588. Princeton is next in action when it competes at the NCAA Championship at Gold River, Calif. from May 27-29. (Photo by Erik Dresser/Row2k.com, Courtesy of Princeton’s Office of Athletic Communications)

Although the Princeton University women’s open crew varsity 8 fell to Brown by nearly three seconds in its season-opening regatta in late March, Lori Dauphiny saw the performance as a sign that her top boat had good speed.

Head coach Dauphiny’s intuition proved correct as the Tigers beat nine straight foes heading into the Ivy League Championships last weekend.

“In the the week before Ivies, I saw a difference in the varsity boat and all the boats,” said Dauphiny, reflecting on her rowers’ progress.

“It was just that extra time. We were in reading period so they weren’t in class any more; that might have helped them as well to jell and come together.”

While it posed some logistical headaches, it helped Princeton to have the regatta on Lake Carnegie as it was moved from the original site, Mercer Lake, due to the high winds that hit the area on Sunday.

“I was happy to have it on Lake Carnegie, it was the first time that I am aware that the women have had Ivies or Eastern Sprints on Lake Carnegie,” said Dauphiny.

“There have been many, many historic races on Lake Carnegie, Olympic Trials and the like. It is nice to join that group and have the women’s championship here on our lake. it was a real honor. It is always fun to be on our home course, there is no doubt about it.”

Princeton’s top boat had a lot of fun as the ninth-ranked Tigers avenged its season-opening defeat to upset No. 1 Brown in the grand final, clocking a winning time of 6:28.039 over the 2,000-meter course with the Bears taking second in  6:31.588.

“Our start was good, we eased our bow well out ahead in the high strokes, so we did establish a couple of seats there, which is good,” said Dauphiny, whose program earned the automatic bid to compete at the 2016 NCAA
Championships in two weeks by virtue of the win and is one of three teams (Brown, California) to have competed in every NCAA Championships since the inaugural regatta in 1997.

“It became a battle, we got a slight upper hand off the starting sequence and then we were able to lengthen that a bit in the second 500. We did enough to hold off charges from Brown, they came back twice. Going into the last 500 Brown pushed in again one last time but then we shifted up our sprint. We were in a good position.”

Senior leadership from Erin Reelick and Meghan Wheeler on the top boat and Mary Ann McNulty on the second varsity 8 helped the Princeton rowers keep a good frame of mind through the competition, which started with heats at 6 a.m. on Sunday morning.

“Reelick, Wheeler, and McNulty are the tri-captains, the three of them were instrumental in all of this,” said Dauphiny, who got up at 2:30 a.m. on race day.

“They have been good leaders on the team; they have experience. What they share with the team was valuable in their performance. None of us have been through this with the changes to early morning. They stayed pretty calm and collected through the changes that were going on.”

Dauphiny liked the performance she got from the team collectively.

“The varsity 8, 2V8, and the top 4 really stepped up to the plate to assert themselves in that bid for the NCAA,” sad Dauphiny, whose 2V8 and varsity 4 each took second in their grand finals.

“It was tremendous. The coaching staff, Steve Coppola and Kate Maxim, did a great job in preparing the athletes and the athletes did a great job of making sure that they were ready. The results of the entire team were impressive and we were absolutely so proud to see what they were able to do and even those boats that don’t qualify for the national championship are contributors to the success of the program so every kid had a role.”

With the NCAA championship regatta slated for May 27-29 in Gild Rover, Calif., Dauphiny knows that the success last Sunday doesn’t guarantee anything going forward.

“I think last weekend was instrumental in our development and growth towards the NCAAs,” said Dauphiny, who guided her top boat to national titles in 2006 and 2011.

“Winning against Brown is a good thing but I know Brown well and they tend to respond. I know that in NCAAs, lots of things can change. It is a different dynamic, you don’t know what heat you are going to be in. You don’t know how you are going to proceed through the championships, whether you have to go through reps or not. It is a different animal.”