Courtesy: Rutgers Athletics
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers women’s swimming & diving team hosts Princeton on Saturday, Nov. 16 at the Rutgers Aquatics Center at the Sonny Werblin Recreation Center in the fifth annual Battle For The Cannon Trophy. Meet begins at 11 a.m and admission is free.
ABOUT THE CANNON WAR
- Rutgers and Princeton will be swimming and diving for the Cannon Trophy, named in honor of the Rutgers-Princeton Cannon War.
- The origin of the Rutgers-Princeton Cannon War dates to 1777 when two cannons from the British army were left on the campus of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) after the battle of Princeton during the Revolutionary War.
- The cannons remained near the campus until the larger of the two was put to use during the War of 1812 and moved to New Brunswick to protect the city.
- A dispute over cannon ownership ensued at some point, and the cannon eventually wound up back in Princeton, where it was placed, in the ground, on Princeton’s campus on the site that is now called “Cannon Green.”
- On the night of April 25, 1875, ten members of the Rutgers Class of 1877 set out to steal back “Big Cannon” from Princeton However, they were unable to move it, so instead they returned to New Brunswick with “Little Cannon”.
- Eventually, a joint committee settled the matter, and “Little Cannon” was returned to Princeton, however, Rutgers students have been known to travel the 17 miles to the Princeton campus to paint the cannon red.
CANNON WAR TROPHY HISTORY
- 2019 – Rutgers – 163-137
- 2021 – Princeton – 186-114
- 2022 – Princeton – 159.5-140.5
- 2023 – Princeton – 191.5-108.5
LAST TIME IN THE WATER
- Rutgers was in Big Ten action against Purdue at home last weekend with the Boilermakers taking 191.00 – 106.00 win.
- The Scarlet Knights captured 15 top-three finishes, including victories by Molly Urkiel in both the 100 and 200 breast and Blanka Berecz in the 200 fly.
- Berecz led the sprints with a victory in the 200 fly with a 1.33-second margin win in 2:00.92.
- Urkiel and Sofia Bartoloni were both 1-2 in the breast events. Urkiel narrowly edged her teammate out by .03 seconds in the 100 breast, clocking in at 1:03.10, while Bartoloni followed at 1:03.13. The 200 breast had Urkiel log a time of 2:15.96, with Bartoloni the runner-up in 2:16.04.
RUTGERS TOP 10
- Rutgers has two top 10 times/scores on the season. Sophomore Sofia Bartoloni moved into eighth all-time in the 200 breast (2:15.10) against No. 24 Miami and SMU. Also at the same meet, freshman Bailee Sturgill made her debut diving into 10th all-time on 3M with a score of 319.05.
ABOUT PRINCETON
- The Tigers come into Saturday’s meet receiving votes in the CSCAA Top 25 Poll and a pair of wins on the season in Ivy League competition against Brown and Dartmouth last weekend.
- Princeton was led by a pair of individual event wins by Eleanor Sun and Sabrina Johnston. Sun won the 1000 free and 400 IM and was second in the 200 breast. Johnston, meanwhile, won the 100 backs and 100 free and was also on the winning 200 medley relay and 400 free relay.
- Last season, Princeton secured its 25th overall and second-straight Ivy League title.
- The Tigers return four swimmers and three divers who competed at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships.
LAST YEAR IN THE WATER
- Rutgers finished 32nd at the NCAA Championships as Holly Prasanto earned second team all-america honors reaching the consolation final on 1M to place 11th overall. She became the fifth Scarlet Knight diver to earn all-america honors and marked the third-straight season Rutgers has sent a diver to the NCAA Championships.
- At the Big Ten Championships, eight NCAA B cuts were registered, 18 top 24 finishes were recorded, 13 program top 10 times were captured and 28 personal bests were set.
- The 400 medley relay squad consisting returning Scarlet Knights Martyna Piesko and Jade Smits had the highest-ever finish for a Scarlet Knight relay squad at the championships with a fifth-place finish and new school record.
RSMART
- The Scarlet Knights earned the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) team award with a 3.59 spring GPA marking the 21th-consecutive semester RU has been honored with one of the nation’s top grade-point averages. RU’s GPA was also the fourth highest among Big Ten women’s swimming and diving programs ahead of Ohio State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan and Purdue.
- Eight Scarlet Knights were honored as CSCAA Second Team Scholar Americans for achieving a 3.5 grade point average or higher while collecting NCAA B cuts or advancing to NCAA Zone diving competition including returnees Sephora Ford, Shannon Meadway, Martyna Piesko, Elysha Pribadi, Amelia Scott and Molly Urkiel.
- Last season, Rutgers women’s swimming and diving posted 14 Big Ten All-Academic honorees and five Big Ten Distinguished Scholars.
UP NEXT
- The Rutgers diving squad will be back in action at the Buckeye Invitational on Nov. 21-23. The Scarlet Knight swimmers return to the water at the Minnesota Invitational on Dec. 4-7.
