The Yale heavyweight crew team beat out Columbia and Penn this weekend, while the lightweights swept MIT and Dartmouth and the women fell to Princeton.

The heavyweight team won its fifth consecutive Blackwell Cup against the Lions and Quakers on the Housatonic with the first and third varsity boats delivering victories. The lightweight team participated in two home races on Saturday, sweeping Dartmouth in the morning for the Durand Cup and MIT in the late afternoon for the Joy Cup. The No. 11 Yale women traveled to No. 7 Princeton, where the three eights and the second four saw their first losses of the season. The varsity four remains undefeated.

“We kept icy cool through the first 1000 meters, and we asserted our dominance with a ruthless rhythm in the second 1000 meters to win comfortably.” said heavyweight Ollie Wynne-Griffith ’17.

Wynne-Griffith raced in Yale’s first varsity eight, which finished in 5:23.7 minutes, beating Columbia by just over five seconds.

The first boat remains undefeated this season, while the second and third eights have lost one race each. When it comes to the first boat’s performance, “the devil is in the details,” Wynne-Griffith said. “And this week we will continue to nail those details.” he added.

The second varsity race was the tightest of the day. The Quakers secured the win, and the Lions came in second place, just one second behind. The Bulldogs finished three seconds behind Penn in 5:32.8 minutes.

The Yale third varsity pulled a 5:37.9 and had the widest margins of victory of the day.

The lightweight team shared the Gilder Boathouse with the Yale heavyweights on Saturday.

“We had great performances in both races,” said lightweight captain Matt O’Donoghue ’14. “We were able to accomplish our objectives for the weekend and learn where we can improve to find more boat speed.”

O’Donoghue added that the weekend’s races presented an opportunity to practice for the schedule of the Eastern Sprints, during which the team will again race twice in a day.

The lightweights’ first varsity finished against Dartmouth in 5:31.16 minutes. The second varsity and first freshman boats faced off against Dartmouth’s second varsity and beat the Big Green by 11 and five seconds, respectively.

Against the Engineers, the first varsity pulled a 5:31.31, only 0.15 seconds off their morning time. The second varsity had the widest margin of victory, finishing the 2000-meter course in 5:40.51, 16 seconds faster than MIT.

The Eli women saw tough competition from the Tigers on Princeton’s home turf. Princeton retained the Eisenberg Cup this weekend after its first varsity beat Yale’s boat by three seconds.

“We had a great chance to see some tight racing this weekend,” said women’s captain Maddie Lips ’14. “Our fours did an excellent job of racing hard.”

The varsity four clinched a one-second victory over Princeton, with rowers Emily Patton ’17, Olivia Maclean ’17, Kate O’Brien ’17 and Schuyler Ritchie ’17 and coxswain Laura Grimbergen ’15.

Princeton saw wide margins of victory over Yale’s second and third eights, beating the boats by eight and 18 seconds, respectively.

“All boats came away with a better understanding of what we need to improve to get faster as we work towards the Ivy Championships,” Lips said.

The women will race Harvard at home and travel to Brown next week, while the heavyweight men will face Cornell and Princeton at Princeton. The lightweight men will race the Crimson and the Tigers at Harvard.

ERICA PANDEY