Category Archives: Columbia

July 31, 2012 · 7:00 am

On Repeat – Ivy Alums Looking for Back-to-Back Medals

Five of the Ivy League’s 48 athletes at the 2012 London Games won medals at the 2008 Beijing Games including Caryn Davies (Harvard ’05), Susan Francia (Penn ’04), Caroline Lind (Princeton ’06), Malcolm Howard (Harvard ’05) and James Williams (Columbia ’07).

Davies, Francia and Lind all captured Gold in 2008 as part of the United States’ women’s eight boat. The trio – as well as Ivy additions Esther Lofgren (Harvard ’09) and Taylor Ritzel (Yale ’10)  – will have a chance to repeat on Thursday, August 2 when they take part in the A Final. The American women’s eight boat qualified for the A Final when it finished first in Heat 1 with a time of 6:14.68.

Howard took home a Gold from Beijing as part of Canada’s men’s eight boat. Howard and the Canadians finished second in the repechage in a time of 5:27.41 to book their place in the A Final, which will be run on Wednesday, Aug. 1.

Williams was a member of the Team USA sabre squad that finished with a Silver in Beijing. On Friday, August 3, Williams and his U.S. sabre teammates Daryl Homer and Tim Morehouse return to the strips in search of a medal. The Americans will open the knockout-style tournament with a match versus Russia.

The last Ivy athletes to earn back-to-back Olympic medals were Harvard’s Davies and Yale’s Sada Jacobson. Davies won Silver with the U.S. women’s eights at the 2004 Athens Games in addition to Beijing. Jacobson (Yale ’05) took home a Bronze in individual women’s sabre from Athens and followed with an individual women’s sabre silver and a team bronze in Beijing. The last Ivy athlete to win Gold in back-to-back Olympics was David Berkoff (Harvard ’89) who was part of the U.S. 400 medley relay teams that finished first at the 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Games.

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Filed under Columbia, Fencing, General, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, Rowing, Swimming, Yale

July 30, 2012 · 6:00 pm

Tuesday, July 31

Here is the listing of events that involve Ivies for Tuesday, July 31. If there is no mention of the event being broadcast on TV, check NBCOlympics.com for the online broadcast.

After defeating Tunisia on Sunday, 60-56, Koko Archibong (Penn) and the Nigerian men’s basketball team will face Lithuania at 9:30 a.m., in their second game of  group play. The contest will be broadcast on NBC’s Specialty: Basketball channel. Archibong played five minutes and recorded one rebound and one steal in Nigeria’s four-point win over Tunisia.

Columbia’s Sherif Farrag, competing for Egypt, will take part in the men’s fencing individual foil tournament. The event will begin at 5:30 a.m., with the gold medal bout at 2:40 p.m.

The US women’s field hockey team, featuring a healthy does of Tiger blood, will face Argentina at 2:00 p.m. in the second game of group play for both teams. Fans can watch the game on MSNBC. Team USA includes four current Tigers in sisters Julia and Katie Reinprecht (players), Michelle Cesan (alternate) and assistant coach Nate Franks (coaching staff). The Americans fell to Germany, 2-1, on Sunday. Katie Reinprecht was on the field for 48 minutes, while Julia Reinprecht played 44 minutes.

In Judo, the men’s 81kg and the women’s 63kg tournaments will take place, starting at 4:30 a.m. and 4:37 a.m., respectively. The women’s gold medal fight will start at 11:00 a.m., followed by the men’s at 11:10 a.m. The US judo team is coached by Jimmy Pedro (Brown).

In rowing, Ken Jurkowski (Cornell) and Gevvie Stone (Princeton) will compete in the men’s and women’s single sculls quarterfinals, respectively, at 6:00 a.m. and 6:40 a.m. After advancing from the repechage, the All-Ivy USA men’s lightweight four boat of Anthony Fahden (Dartmouth), Nick LaCava (Columbia), Will Newell (Harvard) and Robin Prendes (Princeton) will race in the semifinals at 7:40 a.m. Rowing action can be seen on NBC from 11:15 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. – 2:40 p.m.

In sailing, after finishing sixth in race one and 10th in race two on Monday, Dartmouth’s Erik Storck will skipper his boat in races three (7:00 a.m.) and four (7:45 a.m.) of the men’s 49er class. The US sailing team is coached by Yale coach Zack Leonard, a former Bulldog himself (’89).

Princeton’s Diana Matheson and Team Canada will face Sweden in Women’s Soccer Group F action at 9:30 a.m. The game will be live on MSNBC. The Canadians are 1-1 in group play after their 3-0 win over South Africa on Saturday and need a win to assure advancing to the knockout round (could also advance with a tie or loss depending on other results). Matheson has played all 90 minutes in each of her team’s games.

NBCOlympics.com Broadcast Schedule for July 31

Schedule of Olympic Events

Olympic TV Schedule

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Filed under Basketball, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Fencing, Field Hockey, Harvard, Judo, Penn, Princeton, Rowing, Sailing, Uncategorized, Women's Soccer, Yale

· 2:30 pm

Flag Bearer in our Midst

The Dominica flag

UPDATED: Hurtault went on to be Dominca’s flag bearer at the opening ceremonies. Check out the pictures here:
Parade of Nations

Two-time women’s sabre Olympic Gold medalist Mariel Zagunis was selected as the U.S. flag bearer for the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics on Friday night in London, England. Zagunis, a Notre Dame product, will become the third fencer to lead Team USA at the Opening Ceremonies, following in the footsteps of Columbia’s Norman Armitage (1952, Helsinki and 1956, Melbourne), and USC’s Janice Lee Romary (1968, Mexico City).

But, it looks as if the Ivy League will have a flag bearer in London after all. Columbia alum Eric Hurtault ’07 (@swifft7) tweeted a picture of his credential for the Opening Ceremony along with an additional credential that reads, “Flag Bearer.” Hurtault represents Dominica and will run the 400m.

Coverage of the 2012 opening ceremonies begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC. For the Associated Press’ all-time U.S. flag bearer list, click here.

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Filed under Columbia, Fencing, General, Track & Field

July 28, 2012 · 8:00 pm

Sunday, July 29

Here is the listing of events that involve Ivies for Sunday, July 29. If there is no mention of the event being broadcast on TV, check NBCOlympics.com for the online broadcast.

Men’s basketball kicks off Sunday’s action, as Penn’s Koko Archibong and the Nigerian squad will face Tunisia at 4:00 a.m. The game will be broadcast on NBC’s Specialty: Basketball channel.

Columbia’s James Williams will compete in the fencing Individual Sabre Tournament, which will begin at 5:30 a.m. and will end at 2:10 p.m. with the gold medal match.

The US field hockey team features a distinct Princeton presence as sisters Julia and Katie Reinprecht are members of the team and assistant coach Nate Franks serves in the same capacity for the national squad. Princeton junior Michelle Cesan is an alternate for the team, which will face Germany at 4:15 p.m. in a Group B matchup. The game can be watched on NBC Sports Network (NBCSN).

The Ivy Leaguers on the rowing teams that competed on Saturday are hoping they will not be racing on Sunday, as the repechage will take place for the men’s lightweight four (4:40 a.m.), men’s single sculls (4:50 a.m.) and women’s single sculls (5:20 a.m.). The repechage is for the squads that do not make the finals after the heats. The US lightweight four boat is All-Ivy, as Columbia’s Nick LaCava, Dartmouth’s Anthony Fahden, Harvard’s Will Newell and Princeton’s Robin Prendes make up the squad, while the US single sculls’ team includes Cornell’s Ken Jurkowski  (men’s) and Princeton’s Gevvie Stone (women’s).

Other rowing action on Sunday includes the heats of the women’s eight. Team USA features Harvard’s Caryn Davies and Esther Lofgren along with Penn’s Susan Francis, Princeton’s Caroline Lind and Yale’s Taylor Ritzel. A pair of Tigers, Andreanne Morin and Lauren Wilkinson, are on Canada’s squad. Rowing will be broadcast on NBC from 340 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.

The men’s 66kg and women’s 52kg judo tournaments will begin at 4:30 a.m., with the gold medal bouts at 11:00 a.m. (women’s) and 11:10 a.m. (men’s). The US judo team is coached by Brown alum Jimmy Pedro (’94).

The first sailing events of the Olympics will take place on Sunday, with action in the men’s Finn, women’s Elliott 6m and men’s Star. The US sailing team is coached by Yale coach Zack Leonard, a former Bulldog himself (’89).

NBCOlympics.com Broadcast Schedule for July 29

Schedule of Olympic Events

Olympic TV Schedule

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Filed under Basketball, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Fencing, Field Hockey, General, Harvard, Judo, Penn, Princeton, Rowing, Sailing, Yale

July 27, 2012 · 8:00 pm

Saturday, July 28

Saturday, July 28 features many Ivy Leaguers in a variety of sports and events. All Olympic events will be streamed live online. Visit NBCOlympics.com and check with your cable and online provider(s) for more details.

At 5:30 a.m., Columbia sophomore Nzingha Prescod and Lion alum Nicole Ross will take to the strips for the start of the women’s individual foil tournament, which will culminate with the gold medal bout at 2:40 p.m. The event will be broadcast from 9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. (ET) and 4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. on MSNBC.

Women’s basketball group play begins on Saturday, and Harvard sophomore Temi Fagbenle and the Great Britain women’s basketball team will face Australia at 5:15 p.m., in a Group B matchup. The game will be broadcast on NBC’s Specialty: Basketball channel; check with your provider for channel number.

Ivy Leaguers abound in some of the rowing heats on Saturday, including the men’s eight (5:10 a.m.), men’s lightweight four (6:00 a.m.), men’s pair (7:00 a.m.) and men’s and women’s single sculls (7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., respectively). NBC will broadcast some of the action from 2:30pm – 3:00 pm.

Harvard will have three competing on Saturday in Brodie Buckland (Australia, men’s pair), Malcolm Howard (Canada, men’s eight) and Will Newell (USA, men’s lightweight four). The other Ivies competing on Saturday include Brown’s Nikola Stojic (Serbia, men’s pair), Columbia’s Nick LaCava (USA, men’s lightweight four), Cornell’s Ken Jurkowski (USA, men’s single sculls), Dartmouth’s Anthony Fahden (USA, men’s lightweight four) and Princeton’s Gevvie Stone (USA, women’s single sculls).

Finally, Princeton’s Diana Matheson ’08 and Team Canada will take on South Africa in Women’s Soccer Group F action at 9:45 a.m. on MSNBC.

Schedule of Olympic Events

Olympic TV Schedule

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Filed under Basketball, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Fencing, General, Harvard, Princeton, Rowing, Women's Soccer

· 6:29 pm

Columbia Women’s Foil Duo To Chase Olympic Glory

On Saturday, July 28 the Columbia duo of Nzingha Prescod and Nicole Ross will take to the strips for the start of the women’s individual foil tournament, which will culminate with the gold medal bout at 2:40 p.m.

Prescod will be a sophomore at Columbia this fall after taking the past year off from school, while Ross is a 2012 graduate. They qualified in April at the Division I National Championships and will each be appearing in the Olympics for the first time.

Ross won the 2010 women’s foil NCAA National Championship and was a three-time All-American from 2008-10. Prescod went 16-2 at her first Ivy League Round-Robin (2011) to claim All-Ivy first team honors and was also voted the women’s Most Outstanding Rookie by the League’s head coaches.

Both Ross (No. 23 seed) and Prescod (No. 17 seed) have byes into the round of 32. Ross is slated to face Tunisia’s Ines Boubakri, while Prescod will take on Hungary’s Aida Mohamed in the round of 32.

At the 2008 Beijing Games, four Ivy athletes combined to win five medals in fencing.  Yale’s Sada Jacobson captured a bronze in women’s team sabre and a silver in individual sabre. Harvard’s Emily Cross and Columbia’s Erinn Smart were part of the silver medal-winning women’s foil team and Columbia’s James Williams won a silver in team sabre as part of the U.S. squad.

Women’s foil will be broadcast from 9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. (ET) and 4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. on MSNBC. The women’s individual foil field and approximate bout times are listed here:
Women’s Individual Foil

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· 4:00 pm

The U.S. Men’s Lightweight Four Boat: Truly All-Ivy

Alums from four different Ivy League schools head to London as the Lightweight Men’s Four boat for the United States. Columbia’s Nick LaCava (2009), Dartmouth’s Anthony Fahden (2008), Harvard’s Will Newell (2011) and Princeton’s Robin Prendes (2011) hope to earn the League’s first lightweight four medal since Penn’s Jeff Pfaendtner won bronze with Team USA in 1996.

LaCava, Fahden, Newell and Prendes earned a berth to the Olympics thanks to a first-place finish at the 2012 Final Olympic Qualification Regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland in May 2012, where they edged the Netherlands by .14 seconds.

Three of the four earned All-Ivy honors during their time at their respective schools, led by Newell, who earned second-team All-Ivy honors in 2009 and 2010 and first team accolades in 2011. Prendes was a two-time first-team All-Ivy recipient, as his boat held off that of Newell’s in 2009 and 2010, and Fahden took home first-team All-Ivy in 2007.

Fahden punctuated his Dartmouth career by helping the varsity men’s eight boat win the EARC Sprints Championship in 2007, before transitioning to the US lightweight four after graduation.

LaCava, who served as team captain and was named Team MVP as a senior with the Lions, is hoping for an Olympic finish as sweet as the company he co-founded, Chocomize.com, an online custom chocolate company that allows people to build their own chocolate candy bar.

Newell served as team captain for the Crimson as a senior, the same year he earned his first All-Ivy first team award, after back-to-back second team honors. His Harvard career included an undefeated 10-0 record and a No. 1 national ranking in 2010 and an Eastern Championship for the varsity eight in 2011.

Prendes has experienced success in England previously, as he was part of the Princeton men’s lightweight crew that won the Royal Henley Regatta in 2009. Prendes’ career at Princeton included two Sprints championships, two Ivy titles, two IRA national titles and the Royal Henley Regatta victory.

The Lightweight Four schedule

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Filed under Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Rowing

· 1:00 am

The Social Media Olympics – #LondonIvies

Olympic Games of the past have had a hand in marking substantial societal checkpoints in regards to technology and how the public consumes the Olympics.

For instance, at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, live coverage of the Games was available for the first time on mobile phones. Internet coverage of the games also spiked as fans turned to the online resources for results and analysis. The site of the Turin Games Organizing Committee, torino2006.org, registered approximately 700 million page views and the site of the International Olympic Committee, Olympic.org, over 32 million (according to http://www.olympic.org/turin-2006-winter-olympics).

The 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver began to usher in an era of what many are calling “Social Media Olympics.” With more countries and athletes involved in the Summer Games, the trend is set to take off at the London games. Since the last Summer Games in 2008 in Beijing, Twitter use had increased by approximately 140 million users and Facebook has increased by around 800 million active users. So the first truly “social Media Games” is set to be the 2012 edition.

Here is The New York Times‘ July 1 take on how the 2012 games will be impacted by Social Media:
Social Media Is the Message for Olympics

The Wall Street Journal on Twitter’s partnership with the Olympics:
Twitter Embraces Olympics To Train for the Big Time

USA Today on Social Media and Apps heading into the London Games:
Social media apps create new Olympic experience

As the Ivy League follows the 2012 Games, the official Twitter handle (@Ivy_Athletics) will tag Olympic related tweets with the hashtag #LondonIvies. Feel free join the conversation and spread the news, results and features about our Ivy athletes and coaches and help create the story that is the Ivy League and the 2012 London Games by using the #LondonIvies hashtag!

Here is a listing of known twitter handles for the Ivy League contingent in London:

ATHLETES
Brown
Craig Kinsley:  @craigkinsleyUSA

Columbia
Erison Hurtault: @swifft7
Nzingha Prescod: @zingzang14
Nicole Ross: @supernicc

Dartmouth
Evelyn Stevens: @evelyn_stevens

Harvard
Caryn Davies: @tofollowrowing
Temi Fagbenle: @TemiFagbenle
Malcolm Howard: @malcolmhoward
Samyr Laine: @S_Laine2012
Esther Lofgren: @EstherLofgren
Alex Meyer: @AlexMeyerSwims
Will Newell: @TheWillyNewelly

Penn
Susan Francia: @zfrancia

Princeton
Sara Hendershot: @SaraHendershot
Caroline Lind: @carolinelind12
Sam Loch: @samloch
Andreanne Morin: @andiemorin
Glenn Ochal: @glennochal
Robin Prendes: @RobinPrendes
Julia Reinprecht: @Jreinpre
Katie Reinprecht: @kreinp
Gevvie Stone: @gevgevs
Soren Thompson: @SorenThompson7

Yale
Ashley Brzozowicz: @snappeaashley
Tess Gerrand: @tgerrand
Sarah Lihan: @TeamGoSail
Taylor Ritzel: @taritzel

COACHES
Harvard
Tim Murphy: @HMSDcrimson

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