Lightweight Men

Men's Lightweight Assistant Coach

David Burke

Burke begins his first season with Princeton in 2022.

Burke comes from Old Dominion where he was the assistant coach/recruiting coordinator for the women’s rowing program since 2019.

Prior to Old Dominion, Burke spent six seasons at Cornell where he also had the same title for the men’s squad. While there, the assistant helped the second varsity to eighth place at the 2016 IRA National Championships. The 2015 and 2016 Eastern Sprints produced consecutive bronze medals for Cornell while Burke also coached two more top-five finishes at Easterns. Some other highlights at Cornell including coaching nine participants at the U-23 World Rowing Championships and one individual who was named to the 2020 U.S. national squad.

His previous stop before Cornell featured five years at Northeastern. In 2012, he was a part of the staff that led the team to a silver medal at Eastern Sprints and a bronze at IRAs. Burke recruited and coached five rowers that competed at the World Rowing Championships.

Other coaching stops include St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute and the West Side Rowing Club. Burke attended Northeastern where he majored in history and minored in secondary education. As a member of the rowing team, he earned the Charlie Smith and Jack Grinold Boathouse Awards while helping the 2V to fourth place at Eastern Sprints, sixth place at IRAs and second at the Head of the Charles.

Lightweight Men Head Coach

Matt Smith

Matt Smith, a 2004 United States Olympian and a coach with strong collegiate and international experience, finished his eighth season with the Princeton heavyweights in 2024, and he has helped head coach Greg Hughes build Princeton into one of the deepest, most talented programs in the nation.

In 2024, Princeton captured second place in the IRA Ten Eyck Standings which was the highest mark for the team since 2016 and the best score among all East Coast schools. The 2V earned a silver medal, its first medal at IRAs since 2017 and a five-spot jump from 2023. The 3V also collected a silver, its first medal since 2016.

The Tigers claimed the Rowe Cup at Eastern Sprints in 2024 for the first time since 2016 led by gold medals from the 2V and 3V.

2024 was one of the best seasons in program history as it’s the first time ever that Princeton’s 1V and 2V each went undefeated during the same season. The Tigers’ 1V has had a perfect regular season just five times (1881, 1997, 1999, 2006) in the 152-year history of the program.

The 2023 season saw the first varsity lose to only Yale in the regular season before collecting its first medal at Eastern Sprints since 2016 with a silver medal, trailing only the Bulldogs.  

Princeton’s first varsity earned a bronze medal at the 2023 IRA Championships, the boat’s first IRA medal since 2016. The Tigers also finished fourth in the Ten Eyck standings, a four-spot jump from 2022.

The 2022 season featured the varsity four of Eleanor Bauer, Greg Le Meur, Matthew Wagner, Emmett Infante and Sam Kleiner collecting gold at the IRA Championships. It was the first gold medal for Princeton at IRAs since the third varsity in 2016 and the first medal for the Tigers since the varsity four took bronze in 2019. Washington had won the previous 11 4+ titles. The Tigers collected five All-America honors following the 2022 campaign.

Princeton produced five All-Americans in 2021 after securing eighth place at the IRA Championships.

Smith was recently promoted to Associate Head Coach in the fall of 2019.