The men’s heavyweight and lightweight crews came back with mixed results after travelling to Boston, Mass., for a two-day competition to race at the Head of Charles regatta.

The lightweight fours took first place by 30 seconds with a time of 16:27.020, while their teammates in the lightweight eight finished eighth with a time of 15:14.063. The heavyweight crews took fifth in the club eight with a time of 15:28.976, and 11th in the championship eight (14:49.353). A series of unfortunate events proved to be fatal in the championship four, in which the team took 20th place with a time of 18:16.004.

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Without collision or penalties, the lightweight crews had better luck at the Charles.

“The team had a successful weekend, where we won the lightweight men’s four for the first time it has been won by a college in over 20 years,” captain Daniel Ensslen ’09 said in an e-mail message. “In both of our races, we followed our race plan and attacked hard early, [but] unfortunately the Eight was not able to maintain their pace for the entire race.”

In the lightweight eights, Princeton took first place with a time of 14:46.757 while Harvard 15:00.128 took third in that event.

Ensslen added that the strong winds made it difficult to navigate and maintain rhythm, but both heavyweight and lightweight crews will be able to prove themselves again next weekend.

“So far our results have been the same as they were last fall against our rivals. We are in the middle of the pack and beginning to gain momentum going into the winter,” he said. “We are going to continue to train hard this week and try and improve upon our results this past weekend at the Charles.”

For the heavyweight crews, their highest place was fifth in the club eight, where Harvard took first place (15:03.974) as well as third place (15:24.326). In the championship eight, the team took 11th place with a time of 14:49.353. The University of Washington finished in first place with a time of 14:28.0987.

Head coach John Pescatore explained the Bulldogs’ 20th-place finish in the championship fours was a result of a collision with another team. In addition, a penalty of one minute was tacked on to the crew’s actual time of 17:16.004.

“They were pretty good until the problem,” Pescatore said. “I’m still trying to figure out what the penalty was for.”

Without the penalty, the team would have taken 12th place.

Captain Andy Collard ’09 said the boat had to stop in the middle of the race in order to correct the course because of the collision.

“There were some equipment problems during the race, so the results weren’t as good as they could’ve been,” he said.

Still, Collard was optimistic about the results.

“It was a pretty good outcome in general,” he said. “We can improve on everything. There’s always room for improvement.”

Both Bulldog teams will travel to Princeton, N.J., to compete at the Princeton Chase this weekend.

Pescatore explained that the competition at the event is usually pretty good. Princeton, the host of the meet, won last year, he noted.

“They’re really good,” Pescatore commented. “We’re certainly going to do our best.”