For the 13th consecutive year, Princeton’s varsity crew beat out Penn and Columbia in the Childs Cup Race.
The Red and Blue’s top boat finished 3.3 seconds behind the Tigers on a rainy Saturday morning at Overpeck Park. With a formidable opponent and difficult weather conditions in their way, the Quakers fought hard to put on their best display.
The Childs Cup holds the title of the oldest collegiate sports trophy. In 1879, George W. Childs, the owner and publisher of the Philadelphia Public Ledger, sponsored a four-oared rowing competition between Penn, Princeton, and Columbia. Penn emerged victorious at the Childs Cup’s inauguration, winning one of the first intercollegiate races in the program’s history. In 1889, the race was changed to an eight-oared event and remains in this format.
While other competitors like Navy and Cornell have been invited to participate in the past, the Childs Cup has traditionally been an annual three-way battle among deep-seated Ancient Eight Rivals: the Lions, Tigers, and Quakers. After Princeton’s victory on Saturday, it now leads in all-time wins with 54, followed by Penn with 44, and Columbia with 12. Penn’s last victory came on the Schuylkill in 1993. Since 1994, the Tigers have won the Cup every year, barring Columbia’s 2009 victory.
“I was really proud of the way the guys attacked the race,” coach Al Monte said. “I thought all of our crews fought really hard, and that’s something you can’t replace... Ultimately, we need to be a team of racers; that has to be first and foremost in our minds all the time. I thought they did a great job racing and bringing this competitive element today. It was one forward step for us.”
Penn’s varsity boat was manned by senior coxswain Nicole Ahadian, senior rowers Sam Sullivan, Jason Kennedy, Matthew Davis, and Isak Zvegelj, juniors Lars Finlayson, Cole Riedinger, and Tommy Schrieber, and freshman Marco Dri. The top crew for the Red and Blue has varied a lot from race to race this spring as Coach Monte and the team continue to tweak things in preparation for the IRA National Championships.
“We haven’t raced the same lineup for any one of our races,” Ahadian said. “There’s definitely been a lot of variation, and we’re still trying to figure out what our fastest lineup is. There are still a lot of changes that are likely going to be made as the IRAs get closer in the following weeks.”
Ahadian has been a coxswain in men’s rowing since her first year of high school in California. On Saturday morning, she had a particularly difficult role in organizing and navigating Penn’s Varsity boat throughout the race.
“In terms of my role, I think I’m like a middleman between the rowers and coach,” Ahadian said. “I can understand what the guys are feeling in the boat and hear what the coach is seeing from the sidelines. My role is to help connect the dots there and then, when it comes time to race, it’s really up to me to make sure everyone is in the right position at the right time and place.”
On a brighter note, Penn was victorious in two of the early races that morning. In the Second Varsity Eights, freshman coxswain Hal Hunter, senior rowers James Votruba-Drzal, John Michael Hatheway, and Charles Jones, junior George Rodgers, sophomores Red Staunton and James Glomb, and freshmen Leo Goez and Oscar St. Pierre finished ahead of Princeton’s number two boat by a close margin of 1.3 seconds. The Red and Blue’s Fifth Varsity Eights also secured a victory, beating the Tigers to the finish line with a 2.4-second gap.
“I was really proud of the second varsity team for coming out and winning that race. …” Monte said. “They have seen every iteration of this program over the last four years, and I was really happy for them. … Those guys have to be pushing the next guys so that every man on the team feels like they are responsible for the speed of the varsity eight. They need to do their job to make sure that they are pushing every guy so that our varsity can have their best performance.”
Penn will be on home turf this weekend to take on Yale and Columbia on the Schuylkill River for the Blackwell Cup. All races will take place on Saturday, April 19, culminating in the varsity event to crown the winner of the Blackwell Cup trophy.
“[Princeton is] a measuring stick,” Monte said. “We have a lot of respect for Princeton. We’re fortunate that Penn is one of the oldest and most successful rowing programs and can compete against the best. … This stretch will give us a good assessment of where we stack up against the best in the country, and we’re aiming to be the best in the country.”
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