Georgetown pushed through the wind and rain to improve on past performances over the weekend at the Princeton (N.J.) Chase.

The varsity heavyweight and lightweight eight boats finished in the top third of their respective races, while the varsity lightweight women rowed against tougher, open-weight competition. The weather was so severe that the fours and smaller boat races were cancelled for safety concerns.

“It’s a race that we traditionally go to every year because this is where the fastest crews are,” women’s lightweight Head Coach Jim O’Connor said. “And you only get better by racing better and faster crews.”

In a field of 54 shells, 49 of which were faster open-weight boats, the lightweight-eight finished 46th in the heavyweight category. Among the five lightweight boats in the event, Georgetown finished fourth, ahead of only Princeton’s `C’ boat.

The Princeton `A’ boat showed itself to be one of the fastest crews in the country, putting its `A’ team in 19th place in the competitive field.

“Princeton is a very fast crew right now and so is Radcliffe and they’re only going to be faster in the spring,” O’Connor said.

Radcliffe, consistently one of Georgetown’s biggest rivals and toughest competition put its lightweight team just ahead of Georgetown in 44th place.

Radcliffe, MIT, Princeton and Yale all sent boats to the prestigious regatta, and their presence gave Georgetown a glimpse of the kind of team Georgetown aims to form.

“For where we are right now early in the season I was happy with the progress we made from Boston at the Head of the Charles,” O’Connor said. “Obviously we’re not where we want to be in terms of top-level speed. But we have seven months before things really start to matter with our primary racing season in the spring.”

Although the competition was superior to Georgetown’s best efforts and the weather made rowing difficult, the team showed grit.

“I thought they did a fantastic job ignoring the absolutely terrible conditions and rowing the entire three-mile course,” O’Connor said.

The men’s heavyweight-eight finished seventh in their race of 37 boats and were fifth of nine `A’ crews. The `B’ and C’ boats finished in tandem, 16th and 17th, respectively. All three Georgetown boats finished ahead of IT and finished just ahead of Princeton’s `B’ crew which finished in 17th place.

The men’s lightweight eight had a successful race as well, placing 11th of 30 crews and seventh of 11 `A’ teams. Georgetown was faster than traditional rivals and top rowers Rutgers, Harvard, Dartmouth whose `A’ teams lagged behind the Hoyas.

The freshman crews will next race Sunday along the Potomac in a friendly regatta with Virginia and George Washington while the varsity teams will have to wait until Nov. 12 to compete at the Virginia Romp, in Charlottesville, Va.