WHEELING AND DEALING: Princeton University women’s rowing star Meghan Wheeler powers through the water in a race this spring. Last weekend, senior star and tri-captain Wheeler helped the Princeton women’s open varsity 8 take sixth in the Grand Final at the NCAA Championships in Gold River, Calif. The Tigers finished seventh overall in the team standings as the second varsity 8 took sixth and the varsity four placed seventh. (Photo by Beverly Schaefer, Courtesy of Princeton’s Office of Athletic Communications)

Meghan Wheeler had a bad taste in her mouth last spring as she wrapped up her junior season with the Princeton University women’s open crew.

After helping the varsity 8 take an encouraging third in the Ivy Championships, Wheeler and her teammates stumbled at the NCAA Championships.

The Tigers failed to qualify for the Grand Final for a second year in a row and sunk to an 11th place finish as they took fifth in the petite final.

“Last year was one of the roughest years for Princeton rowing,” said Wheeler. “We thought things were a little negative.”

Getting named as a tri-captain along with classmates Erin Reelick and Mary Ann McNulty, Wheeler looked to  change the tone heading into the 2016 season.

“Our whole thing, first and foremost, leading by example and then secondly creating a team environment this year that is a little more positive,” said Wheeler.

That positive approach paid dividends as Princeton won the varsity 8 Grand Final at the Ivy Championships in May and made it back to the Grand Final at the NCAA Championships last weekend at Gold River, Calif., where they placed sixth.

In Wheeler’s view, last season’s struggles paved the way for this year’s success.

“I think this entire year has been looking at what we were doing last year and then thinking how we can do a little better in everything that we do and how can we make sure that the end result is not what happened last year,” said Wheeler.

“I think it has made the team so much more powerful, so much more connected this year. So while last year sucked, we have made the most out of it and we are doing a lot better this year because of it.”

Wheeler has gotten a lot out of rowing since she took it up as a freshman at McLean (Va.) High, deciding to try the sport after going to a team organizational meeting mainly to keep a friend company.

“I liked it right away; I had a group of friends who were doing it so it was very fun to get to do it with my friends,” said the 6’0 Wheeler, whose also played basketball for three seasons at McLean.

“I wasn’t too bad it at first so that made it a little easier to keep going. I think I did well because I was tall.”

Wheeler helped McLean win a state title in the varsity 4 as a junior and also competed at the Head of Charles rowing for a club program out of the Thompson Boat Center in Washington, D.C.

Realizing that she had the potential to row at the college level, Wheeler got involved in the recruiting process and eventually decided to come to Princeton.

“I just thought the team was amazing; it was both a great school and a great community,” said Wheeler, who also considered Stanford, Washington, and Yale.

“It is really close to home. I think the main thing was that the coaching staff and the facilities are unparalleled.”

During her freshman year at Princeton, Wheeler quickly realized that she needed to get up to speed to compete at the next level.

“I think with rowing, it was just stepping up my game a little bit; I came in and I definitely wasn’t as fit as I should have been,” said Wheeler.

“I didn’t really know what I could do as a member of the team so I think it was an adjustment. You can be a really good rower and you just have to put the work in to be a really big contributing team member so I think freshman year was about figuring out what I wanted to do at Princeton crew.”

Wheeler found a home on the second varsity 8 that spring after spending some time in the top boat.

“It was one of the valuable experiences I got at Princeton; I really got a taste of what it was like to be in the 1V but at the end of the season I ended up on the 2V,” recalled Wheeler.

“The team did really well that year so I was happy to be wherever I was. But in talking with the coaches, they said, look you can be in the 1V and you are a really good rower but for right now we are a really fast team and you are going to be in the 2V. It gave me a really good sense of how to be OK with no matter where you are on the team. The 2V was great that year.”

As a sophomore, Wheeler moved up to the top boat and helped the Tigers win the Ivy League grand final as they defeated top-ranked Brown.

“It was a really good year but it was a lot of hard work that year,” said Wheeler.

“It took a lot of people fighting and spending a lot of time really working hard so I think that year was really special.”

In the summer of 2014, Wheeler enjoyed a special rowing experience as she competed for the U.S. quadruple sculls at the World Rowing Under-23 Championships.

“That was the first time I made a national team, which was exciting; that year I just wanted to get invited to selection camp,” said Wheeler.

“To be able to row in the quad was crazy especially because none of us in the quad that year knew how to scull. That was really fun. It shows that there is a whole other world of rowing that you can be a part of. It helped me refine how to race and compete and think about who I am as a rower. I think it was really valuable for going back to the U-23 last year in the quad again, after being last in the regatta the first year and stepping it up a little bit, we got fourth.”

Princeton refined its racing approach this spring after starting the season by losing to Brown and Ohio State.

“I think the first race was really cool to open with two of the top teams in the country; while we want to win at Princeton, people were still shocked a little bit at how close the margins were,” said Wheeler.

“It showed everyone that we are going to be a fast team this year. We were thinking about improving with every race. Some races were tougher than others but every race we thought about our own race plan, we stayed internal. Week by week we were able to put a longer better piece together and I think it just culminated in Ivies.”

Coming into the Ivy regatta, Princeton was confident that it could be the fastest boat.

“We really wanted to get back at Brown and we knew that Yale was going to be strong; we really believed that we had the power and we had found the speed to be able to do it,” said Wheeler.

“It took a lot of hard work and a lot of pushing down nerves and anxiety and just go out there and we knew if we did the piece we had found in practice we could really give Brown a race and it ended up that way.”

Having topped Brown two years earlier in the Ivy final in a similar scenario, Wheeler had a sense of deja vu at the ending of the race.

“We talked with people who had been champions in 2014 and they had been talking about the feeling of what it was like when we had open water on Brown in the last bit of the race,” said Wheeler.

“It was crazy because it was a similar feeling in the last 100 because we were leading Brown and you are feeling we can do it if we hold on a little longer. It was really special, especially for people who had raced three years in the boat.”

Culminating her college career by helping the Tigers emerge as a title contender at the NCAA regatta gave Wheeler a deep sense of pride.

“It is feeling a lot like my freshman year where we went into the NCAAs ranked third; it is cool to be leaving the team when we are ranked and having similar feelings,” said Wheeler, who helped Princeton jump to seventh overall in the team standings at the 2016 NCAA regatta from its 12th place finish last year.

“Everyone is feeling really excited because sometimes you go into NCAAs and you are really nervous and you are super scared to go against the best crews in the country. I think this year we are a little more confident and a little more excited about the prospects of being able to do something really special.”

In reflecting on her Princeton experience, Wheeler is leaving with good feelings about what she has accomplished in and out of the water.

“I think my time at Princeton has just made me value hard work and it really made me grow as a person to understand what it actually is to be a leader and to make a difference in all the things that you do,” said Wheeler, who is planning to take the summer off and then come back in the fall to compete for the U.S. national program.

“I think the seniors this year have all thought about the legacy we want to leave and how can we put the biggest stamp on Princeton crew and leave here feeling the best that we can possibly can. I think the four years we have had together, we have really grown and this year we have helped the team become something positive. We just feel really good because we think we are going to be leaving a team that we feel proud of and that we know is going to do great things in the years to come.”