Battle For The Cannon Trophy Returns

Saturday, November 13

Princeton, N.J.

12:00 PM (ET)

Rutgers University

Princeton

Nov 11 | Women's Swimming & Diving

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PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Battle for the Cannon Trophy is back. The Rutgers women's swimming & diving team looks to retain the trophy when the Scarlet Knights make the short trip down Route 1 to meet in-state rival Princeton at Denunzio Pool Pool on Saturday at noon.

THE CANNON TROPHY

Rutgers and Princeton will be swimming 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.

THE CANNON TROPHY

The first Battle for the Cannon trophy was hosted by the Scarlet Knights at the Rutgers Aquatics Center on Nov. 15 with RU claiming the trophy with a 163-137 victory.
Sofia Chichaikina picked up wins in the 100 free, 200 fly and joined teammate Giulia Ghidini in resetting the Rutgers Aquatics Center record in the 200 free relay in 1:31.75.

LAST TIME IN THE WATER

Sofia Chichaikina and Alice Scarabelli both helped Rutgers to a pair of relay and pair of individual event titles. Both Scarlet Knights gave RU victories with the 200 medley and 400 free relays. Chichaikina continued to shine in free with wins in the 50 and 200. Scarabelli, meanwhile, picked up top times in the 100 back and 100 free.
Two-time Big Ten Diver of the Week Abigail Knapton won both the 1M and 3M.
Scarabelli's winning 100 free swim of 50.51 was the ninth-best in school history, while her 100 back time of 54.71 places her name eighth all-time.
Knapton, along with Savana Trueb, also had all-time top 10 performances on 1m. Knapton's season-best of 313.13 was the third-best score in the books, while Trueb's 298.95 puts her name fifth on the all-time list.

TIMES AROUND THE BIG TEN

Sofia Chichaikina registered the seventh fastest 200 fly time in the conference at Purdue with a win in 2:00.93 marking the ninth-fastest time in the Rutgers record book.
Abigail Knapton's six dives against Harvard last Friday totaling a score of 313.13 is currently sixth among conference divers. Additionally, her score of 344.33 against IUPUI back on Oct. 31 is fifth in the Big Ten.

DIVER OF THE WEEK

Abigail Knapton has won two Big Ten Diver of the Week awards this season.
She picked up her first honor the week of Oct. 13 scoring 309.53 on 1M and 333.45 on 3M breaking both the previous Crandall Pool benchmarks by 10.95 points in the season-opening victory at Army.
Knapton earned her second distinction this week after winning three events on Oct. 29 & 30 on the road at Purdue and IUPUI. In RU's first Big Ten competition of the year, Knapton won 3M scoring 329.85 and was 1.35 points short of also taking home the 1M title with a runner-up performance of 285.15 In the Scarlet Knights' win at IUPUI the next day, Knapton won 1M scoring 303.83 and 3M scoring a season-best 344.33, which is also the third-best in Rutgers history and fourth-best score in the Big Ten.
Knapton is the first Scarlet Knight diver to earn the honor since Addison Walkowiak in 2017.

OPEN WATER

Cat Salladin took seventh at the women's CSCAA Open Water National Championship on Sept. 17. A former member of the USA World Championship Open Water Team, Salladin was one of 70 women's distance swimmers competing in the 5K course and one of four members of the Big Ten to finish among the top 10.
The Scarlet Knight completed the course in 1:04.45.70 and was 12.10 off reaching the top five and earning an invite to the USA Swimming 5K Open Water Championships.

RSMART

Rutgers women's swimming and diving has earned 15-straight College Swimming Coaches Association of America Scholar All-American Team Awards.
The Scarlet Knights boasted a 3.73 GPA last spring marking the 18^th-best GPA among Division I women's swimming programs and second-best among Big Ten teams.
Last season, the Scarlet Knights also boasted 17 Big Ten All-Academic honorees.

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