Georgetown’s men’s lightweight crew team couldn’t muster a repeat performance of last year’s silver medal at the IRA Regatta, but last weekend’s national championship saw healthy finishes for the women’s lightweight eight and men’s heavyweight four.

“We were tighter than we’ve been all year, and over the past few years,” said Rebecca Besant, varsity coach of women’s lightweights. Her team – which she described as “perpetually in fourth” over the course of the season – finished true to form, but this time the team defeated Stanford, to whom Georgetown had lost twice this year.

The early portion of their race consisted of a tight battle against Stanford, but Georgetown pulled away near the 500m mark. The first two finishers were Wisconsin (6:40.47) and Princeton (6:44.01), and fourth-place Georgetown rode a time of 6:48.12 to cross the line less than three seconds after Radcliffe, an early leader.

The highly touted men’s lightweights, meanwhile, were not able to duplicate last year’s silver medal. Although the eights’ time of 5:45.82 was just four-tenths of a second over rival Harvard’s, the Hoyas finished in fifth place. Yale (5:41.89) claimed victory over Cornell (5:43.39) and Penn (5:44.71).

The men’s heavyweight four found more success. With a time of 6:42.71, they took third place in the grand final behind Washington (6:37.66) and Northeastern (6:38.81), earning recognition as Georgetown’s best finishers. California, Harvard and Cornell rounded out the final six.

On the Cooper River in Camden, N.J., the Hoya’s competed in four other divisions but could not make it to the top level finals. The men’s heavyweight eight finished third in the fourth-level final with a time of 5:57.34, five seconds behind first-place Haverford’s 5:52.57.

The men’s freshman eight, men’s freshman four and men’s heavyweight pair all qualified for the third-level final. The Hoyas finished second (6:13.45), third (33:52.85), and fourth (DNS), with Wisconsin, St. Joseph’s and Navy taking first place.

The women’s lightweights, however, proved to have the most notable showing.

“We’re proud of how things have improved over this season,” Besant said. “We finished closer to Wisconsin and Princeton than we have all year.”

And with Jessica Barker as their lone graduating senior they feel poised to overcome their fourth-place hex next year.