Nic Rath has earned the rare honour of being named Princeton Heavyweight Rowing Men’s Captain for 2025. This is Nic’s story from rowing at St Joseph’s, then as an Australian Junior then at SUBC, and onto Princeton. This is Nic’s story of his time at Princeton.
I learnt to row at St. Joseph’s College in Hunters Hill and finished my final season as Captain of Boats in 2019. From there I gained selection in the Australian Junior National team to race in Tokyo. I had always been excited at the possibility of studying in the United States and after returning from Japan I went on an official visit to some of the US colleges. Princeton immediately stood out to me, and I committed there soon afterwards.
Unfortunately, I had to delay the beginning of my studies due to the Covid pandemic. Luckily, I was able to find a home in Linley Point at SUBC. Over the course of the twenty or so months that I had between graduating from Joeys and heading to Princeton, I was able to get some great training in with the group at Sydney Uni and have a lot of fun as well. Some of the highlights of my time with SUBC include two camps in Taree, learning to love racing the pair and the trip down to Tassie for Nationals at Lake Barrington.
At Princeton, I loved my first two seasons with the team, but I didn’t personally see much success. It was not until my third year that things really started to pick up speed. I was selected as bow seat of the Second Varsity Eight and, along with our 1V, we went on to have an undefeated regular season. There’s nothing more fun in rowing than winning so this was absolutely awesome. We then went on to win Eastern Sprints (East Coast Championships) in a time of 5:33 and as a team, win the Rowe Cup (team points trophy) for the first time since 2016. Winning this race is easily one of my favourite rowing memories but winning the Rowe Cup as a team as well made it so much more special. We finished the season with a silver medal at the National Championships and were the second overall nationally ranked team. To cap it all off, we were lucky enough to head over to the Henley Royal Regatta as a reward where we became Temple Challenge Cup finalists.
At the end of my third year, I was selected as the Captain of the Men’s Heavyweight Rowing team for 2025. It’s a huge honour and I have loved every moment of it so far. We are gearing up to begin the Spring racing season in late March and myself and the team cannot wait to see what we can do this year. Our lake is currently frozen, so we are inside on the ergs, but hopefully it won't be for too much longer. I am graduating this coming May with a B.A. in Economics and will thoroughly miss being a part of such an amazing team.
Throughout my time at Princeton, it has been great to have access to the SUBC facilities in Sydney when I return during my breaks from university, and I will always be grateful of their support.
Nic’s rowing record for Princeton 2024
2024: Rowed on the 2V that went undefeated in the regular season, defeating Drexel, Georgetown, Temple, Navy, Penn, Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Cornell and Brown … It was the first time in program history that the 1V and 2V went unbeaten in the regular season … Helped the 2V to gold at Eastern Sprints, the boat’s first gold since back-to-back wins in 2017 and 2018 which led the team to Rowe Cup for the first time since 2016. … Led the 2V to a silver at the IRA National Championships, the boat’s first medal since 2017 and a five-spot jump from 2023, pushing the Tigers to second in the Ten Eyck standings, the team’s highest mark since 2016 ... Rowed at the Henley Royal Regatta, collecting a second place finish for the Temple Cup.
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