Six Georgetown Crew teams raced in the 40th annual Head of the Charles Regatta last Sunday in Cambridge, Mass.

Three men’s and three women’s teams participated in what turned out to include Georgetown’s best showing yet.

The lightweight men’s eight, which is composed of the top eight lightweight rowers, finished fifth of 21 competing teams and clocked in an 11:27 for the 2.3 mile course.

The next four lightweight rowers on the team competed in the lightweight men’s four, finishing seventh of 12 participating teams with a time of 13:16.

The men’s heavyweight eight finished 26th of 37 teams with a time of 11:44.

In the women’s events, the lightweight eight finished in 13:51, seventh of 14 teams, while the heavyweight eight finished 36th of 42 with a time of 13:28.

During the first third of the race, the heavyweight women’s eight collided with another boat but was able to regroup and continue racing. The lightweight women’s four did not finish the race due to a broken oar.

Men’s heavyweight coach Tony Johnson also participated in the event, although not in affiliation with the university. He raced on Saturday in the Master Eights Men event with several friends and won fifth place.

Normally, the Head of the Charles Regatta is three miles long, but it was cut down to 2.3 miles due to inclement weather.

At the peak of the season in the spring, crew races are 2,000 meters, approximately 1.25 miles.

“These [preseason] races are generally long races,” Johnson said. “They require a lot of endurance training and give us technical experience. The work we do here in the fall will be the backbone of what we will do in the spring.”

This was the first big race for the sophomores on both the men’s and women’s teams.

“Both squads have a significant number of sophomores integrating into varsity and playing prominent roles, so the racing experience at such a high-caliber regatta as the Charles was the highlight,” said Jimmy King, the women’s head coach.

Both the men’s and women’s novice teams will race for the first time this weekend in Philadelphia at the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta. The varsity teams will next race in two weeks at the Princeton Chase on Lake Carnegie in New Jersey.