(Photo courtesy of Princeton Crew and Tom Nowak)
LONG PULL: Princeton University women’s open crew senior star Kristin Haraldsdottir, center, pulls hard in a race this spring. Haraldsdottir, a native of Iceland, has rebounded from a rough freshman year at Princeton to emerge as the captain and star of the PU women’s open program. This weekend, Haraldsdottir will look to end her career on a high note as the Tigers head out to Sacramento, Calif. for the NCAA Championship regatta. |
Kristin Haraldsdottir was born in Iceland, moved to Norway as a toddler, and ended up in Minnesota as a five-year-old.
While her family has stayed in Minnesota as her father has practiced medicine at the Mayo Clinic, Haraldsdottir has maintained close ties to Iceland since most of her extended family still lives there.
Despite her multi-cultural background, Haraldsdottir suffered culture shock when she came to Princeton University in 2004 as a prized recruit for the Tiger women’s open rowing program.
For Tarah Kirnan, the mission was clear as she began her senior year on the University of Pennsylvania women’s lacrosse team.
“From the day we came in last September, our motto this year has been ‘in it to win it,’” said Kirnan, a former Hun School standout and star defender for Penn.
As they headed to Mercer County Park last Thursday for the state Group III Final Four, the Princeton High boys’ tennis team was hoping to spend a long day on the courts.
The Little Tigers were starting the day by facing Millburn in the semifinals at 11 a.m. with the winner slated to advance to the championship match at 3 p.m.
PHS ended up going through a marathon, but not for the reasons it had hoped.
On one hand, Mike Russo and his teammates on the Hun School baseball team were upset when they fell to Robbinsville in the opening round of the Mercer County Tournament earlier this month.
The loss was the eighth in nine games for the Raiders and came a day after a defeat by Blair had eliminated Hun from the Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL) title race.
But in another sense, the defeat to Robbinsville gave Russo and the Raiders a singular focus as they turned their attention to defending their state Prep A championship.
Although the Princeton Day School boys’ tennis team came into last week’s Prep B tournament having won three straight titles and boasting undefeated singles players David Holland and Neil Karandikar, the Panthers knew that achieving a four-peat would be a struggle.
“It was certainly going to be a dogfight,” said longtime PDS head coach Rome Campbell.