The Princeton light women ran their National Championships streak in the eight to an even four, capping off an unbeaten season. The Princeton 1V has not lost a race to another lightweight crew since Stanford's win at the 2019 IRA.

This win was their tightest, but the Tigers never trailed to cap off what for a few seniors in the crew was a heck of a four-year run.

Never A Doubt!

The Tigers’ first varsity led throughout and collected its fourth straight gold medal! pic.twitter.com/UfXuxWGHm2

— Tiger Light Women (@tigerwlights) June 2, 2024

Seven seat Lily Feinerman was aboard for all four IRA golds, and we asked her what it was like to race, yet again, with a target on the Tiger's collective back.

"Something that I always remember is that pressure is a privilege." she said. "When you start making a name for your team and the entire boathouse--and I'm lucky to have a boathouse with four amazing teams--it's a name for your institution, because it is never just a name for yourself. That is pressure, because you don't want to only do yourself proud, but also everyone who has helped you get to where you are now.

"It is pressure but when you really trust the girls in your boat, your coach, and the other three teams in the boathouse, you love doing it and you welcome that pressure every single time.

Princeton Light V8

"Today, I was very nervous for this race," Feinerman admitted, "but it was also probably the most confident I've ever felt going into a race because we've grown so much not only the season, but also throughout my four years."

"After COVID, the lightweight field definitely took a hit, so it has not been often that we've seen an exciting race like that. And what a privilege it was to be under that pressure. I never for a second doubted that we'd be able to pull through. We led wire to wire, and I knew every single girl had another gear if we needed to tap into it."

Tigers celebrate

Tight racing was the theme of the day for the Light Women events: the margin in the eight over Stanford was a titch less than 2 seconds, and even the points trophy race came down to one point.

"The thing I'm most proud of today is the seniors rowing a great race and winning the team trophy by one point," head coach Paul Rassam told GoPrincetonTigers.com. "The fight the double, the four and the eight showed out there shows how difficult it is to take the team trophy. We rely on everybody and after missing the Eastern Sprints trophy by one point, we said let's go for it and they pulled it off."

"We are not a big team," Rassam told row2k. "We do not get a lot of recruits - very few. So to win the team points three years in a row is massively satisfying and a tribute to the belief our athletes have in one another. This was the deepest lightweight women’s field that I’ve seen in some time. For our seniors to go out like this pretty damn special."

The points trophy was close--you can see the points break-down here--because three different schools picked up golds, a big switch from the Princeton sweep we saw last year: Stanford and BU won the four and double, after coming in as top-seeds.

The coach of the Stanford four, Antonella Kugler, talked about the tight racing the light women's league produced this year.

Light Women's V8 final

"We got second in the eight last year, too," she said, "and it was great, but I think we definitely came away dissatisfied. So it's great to see the league just be so much more competitive in all three categories this year. Even just the heats races for the doubles and the fours were crazy and definitely some of the tightest racing I've ever seen in lightweight rowing.

"To be able to have the double crush it, with two freshmen, and to have the four crush, with only one senior in that boat--giving her a great last ride--and then to have an eight that just came out swinging today and moved up from the ranking yesterday is huge. It's just a huge step forward for the whole program and we're so excited to see where the next year takes us.

Stanford Light V8 - silver

"Lightweight women's rowing has always been spicy," Kugler added. "This year, we put a little extra something in it and it's really awesome to see the whole league show up and show out. Shout out to everyone who competed this weekend and just really threw down.

IRA LW Four Champs - Stanford

Stroke seat Brooke Legenzowski said that she and the Stanford four knew all the crews here would be fast, even if they had beaten Princeton once earlier this season.

"We trusted the work that we put in all season," she said. "We have such great boat chemistry, so we knew that if we just stayed calm and relaxed throughout the race, we could come out on top.

Stanford Light Four

"Everyone behind me in the boat really trusts me with the rhythm, so I just wanted to make sure that I was setting up the perfect rhythm for the race. I felt really supported by all my teammates, and that's why we were able to keep it so light and move so fast."

If you are interested, you can actually listen to Legenzowski's pregame playlist on Spotify, via the GoStanford.com website, and--apparently--it is a winner. Maybe she shared it with her older sister Carly, who just happened to also win a National Championship on Sunday, coxing the Texas 1V8.

Stanford Light Four - gold

IRA LW Double Champs - BU

"A very internal focus on what we can do to make every little stroke better," was what BU stroke Caroline Burchette said was the key to keeping the double out in front. "We had different focuses throughout the season and we were able to really refine them after Sprint's and tune into what parts of the race we could improve on."

BU double

Bow seat Kylie Lough won IRA bronze in the double last year, and called moving up to gold "awesome."

"We have a really solid, deep team," Lough said, "and competing with them every day practice really prepped us to race so it really just felt one of those practices all over again. We did what we could and we treated the race like we do every practice and ended up being gold instead of third."

Their tip for other folks out there who might want to improve the color of their IRA medals next year?

"Keep fighting, and stay hungry," said Burchette.