Both the lightweight and heavyweight first varsity boats took first this past weekend, but only the latter claimed a cup.

The top heavyweight boat defeated Cornell and Princeton on the Housatonic to win the Carnegie Cup Saturday, while the Y150 first varsity finished in an even tie with Dartmouth for the Durand Cup on the Connecticut River in Hanover, N.H.

“We are proud of our victory this weekend, and we tip our hats to both Princeton and Cornell for fast, tight racing,” heavyweight team captain Lucas Spielfogel ’10 said.

The heavyweights had not brought the Carnegie Cup back to the Gilder Boathouse in three years — Princeton and Cornell have each claimed it once in the past two years. The first varsity race, which determined the Cup’s winner, was tight the entire time, with the Bulldogs prevailing by a mere 1.4 seconds over the Tigers.

“The conditions were very good and the varsity eight rowed a strong race,” head coach John Pescatore said.

Although the first and third heavyweight varsity boats won, the other three could not keep up with the Tigers and the Big Red.

The second varsity finished 8.7 seconds behind Princeton, while the third varsity surpassed Cornell by 0.5 seconds. The final two Yale boats failed to beat either competitor.

“The morning presented a light tail wind and a light tail current, which typically allow a crew to be a bit more aggressive with its cadence,” Spielfogel said. “The water was flat and favorable for clean rowing.”

Despite video analysis, officials at the Connecticut River were unable to determine a winner in the lightweight race between Yale and Dartmouth in the Durand Cup. The three other competing Y150 boats, meanwhile, won their respective races.

Both first varsity boats recorded 5:31.6 finish times, with neither judges nor video recaps able to definitively determine a winner of the Durand Cup.

“As the crews surged across the line, both crews were in phase, so there was no surge-and-wane between the bowballs that usually tells the difference in a close race like that,” lightweight head coach Andy Card explained.

Card added that Yale requested a re-row, but Dartmouth declined since they had a race the next day against Columbia. The Y150 head coach said he watched the race with Gordon Archibald ’50, a lightweight alum whose team once finished in a dead heat with Harvard. The Bulldogs had won the Durand Cup in 2008 and 2009, as well as every year between 1995 and 2005.

The second varsity and both freshman boats dominated by margins ranging from one second for the first freshmen to 5.2 seconds for the second varsity and 7.9 seconds for the second freshmen.

Next weekend the lightweights will travel to New Jersey to race for the Goldthwait and Vogel Cups against Harvard and Princeton. It will be their sixth consecutive weekend away from home.

The heavyweights begin preparing for the Eastern Sprints, which will be held on May 16.