Sports shorts: Recapping 2009-10

The men's lightweight crew celebrates its second consecutive national championship June 5. (Photo by Brett Tomlinson)

When sophomore Donn Cabral crossed the finish line of the 5,000-meter run at the NCAA Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Ore., June 12, it marked the end of another remarkable year in Princeton sports. Men's track and field, led by Cabral's second-place finish in the steeplechase and sixth-place run in the 5,000, ranked 21st of 72 teams in the NCAA meet's final point tally. The Princeton women, paced by steeplechase bronze medalist Ashley Higginson ’11, finished 33rd in a field of 68 teams.

Twelve Princeton teams won Ivy League championships in 2009-10: field hockey, women's cross country, women's basketball, men's indoor track and field, women's indoor track and field, men's fencing, women's fencing, men's swimming and diving, women's swimming and diving, men's lacrosse, women's tennis, and men's lightweight crew. Additionally, the men's water polo team won the CWPA Eastern championship to earn a trip to the NCAA Final Four, where Princeton placed third.

By the athletics department's count, 2009-10 marks the 24th straight year in which Princeton has won the Ivy's unofficial all-sports points race. Tiger athletes have won at least one national championship -- team or individual -- in each of those 24 years, a streak kept alive this year by the men's lightweight crew, which captured its second straight championship at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Regatta June 5.

UPDATE: According to Athletics Communications, Princeton's national championship streak spans 39 years, from 1972 through 2010.