Heavy winds may have forced the lightweight women to scrap their plans for an official meet with Wisconsin but, for the Georgetown crew teams that did race, Saturday saw promising results.

Under a building headwind on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, the lightweight men surprised Penn and Princeton as they claimed victory in the varsity eight race. Penn topped Princeton in their annual competition for the Wood-Hammond Trophy, but Georgetown, a guest competitor, claimed the overall event.

While Princeton took the early lead and Penn fell behind, Georgetown was “a little frantic off the start, not very composed,” men’s lightweight captain James O’Gara said. But about halfway through the race, the Tigers fell back, and the Hoyas edged out the Quakers at the finish line.

“You want to keep your head in the boat, but you can see them in your peripheral vision,” O’Gara said. “It’s a very satisfying feeling.”

The winning time was six minutes, 1.3 seconds ahead of Penn and 3.4 ahead of Princeton. Georgetown took second in the men’s second and third varsity eight races.

For Georgetown’s lightweight men, the victory marks a hopeful upward trend.

“We had lost to Princeton earlier in the season,” O’Gara said, referring to Princeton’s sweep of Georgetown on April 9, “but we had improved in the last few weeks. While we didn’t feel confident that we’d beat them, we were expecting a better performance.”

The heavyweight women, who spent Saturday on Boston’s Charles River, also earned victory. Their opponent, MIT, edged out Georgetown in the varsity four but lost by 17.34 seconds in the varsity eight.

A day later, Georgetown competed in the Big East championship in Worcester, Mass., and left with a first-place finish in the petite varsity eight final. The 6.19-second victory over Villanova helped the Hoyas to a sixth-place finish in a field of eight teams. Notre Dame, with 116 points to Georgetown’s 45, was the overall champion at Lake Quinsigamond.

The heavyweight men, meanwhile, raced Syracuse and Temple on the Schuylkill and finished third in Saturday’s first and second varsity eight races. They took first place in the varsity four against two Temple teams.

Next on crew’s schedule are four meets on Saturday, April 30. The heavyweight men will vie against Yale in Princeton, N.J., and the heavyweight women will head to Philadelphia to take on Penn. The lightweight men and women will respectively face Rutgers and MIT in West Windsor, N.J.

Eyes, however, are beginning to shift toward early June’s 103rd IRA Regatta – the national championship, where the lightweight men placed second last year. O’Gara said he is confident that his team “will have the speed that we’re capable of.”

“I don’t want to make any predictions,” the captain added. “Obviously we’re going for national champions. But all you can do is put yourself in a position where you can win the race. From there, it’s up to whoever has the day.”