The Yale heavyweight crew ended its season on a low note, losing its title as the defending champion of the Princeton 3-Mile Chase on Sunday.

Racing on a beautiful sunny day, the heavyweight varsity eight settled for second place in the contest. The second varsity finished 17th, while the third varsity came in 21st. Yale also entered four varsity fours in the regatta, finishing third, 12th, 16th and 40th. The freshman eight came in fifth.

Forty crews raced in the varsity eight event, and Yale’s heavyweight varsity rowed a time of 13:21.286, second to Princeton’s 13:18.686. The Bulldogs posted the fastest first split (7:27.975) but lost ground to Princeton during the second half of the race. Columbia (13:23.475), Boston University (13:26.967) and Cornell (13:27.063) rounded out the top five. At last year’s Chase, Yale’s varsity took first place with a time of 13:17.595, beating second-place Princeton’s 13:19.525.

Competing in the same event, the Elis’ second varsity eight finished 17th place in a time of 14:00.828. This performance was fifth among second varsity crews — behind BU, Princeton, Cornell and Columbia. The third varsity completed the three-mile course in a time of 14:09.267 to put Yale in 21st.

Head coach John Pescatore said the crew did not fulfill its expectations.

“We were close to [getting what we wanted] in the varsity eight and varsity four, but not quite,” he said.

The varsity four event saw Yale crews finish third (14:58.389), 12th (15:36.963), 16th (15:48.868) and 40th (16:18.375). The freshman eight finished fifth, with a time of 14:22.600 in the freshman event after Princeton, Navy, Columbia and Boston University.

Rowers were also disappointed by the crew’s performance.

“We would have liked to have won in the first varsity eight, but a few things stood in the way,” Patrick Vergara ’11 said. “The expectation was for us to defend our title at the Chase, and we missed that goal by three seconds.”

The Princeton 3-Mile Chase is the last race in the crew’s fall season. The next race will be on March 6, when the Bulldogs host Brown.