The Harvard lightweight men's and the Radcliffe heavyweight women's crew teams traveled to two different venues Saturday, and the weather played a big factor in both races.

Men's Lightweights

The men's lightweights journeyed to Ithaca to take on Cornell and Penn in a three-team match. With relatively calm weather and a small headwind, the varsity eight was able to outpace the Big Red and the Quakers by a comfortable margin. It ran the 1500-meter race at 5:50.06, while Cornell came in second with a 5:57.90 showing, followed by Penn at 6:02.55.

"The conditions were great and we really started off well," sophomore Pat Todd said. "We had a length lead early on and just put on a sprint at the end to finish the race strong."

The junior varsity and third varsity boats also came in first in their 1500-meter races with respective times of 6:19.98 and 6:08.54.

Cornell and Penn placed second and third once again in each race.

The junior varsity race was restarted after Harvard and Cornell collided halfway through, but the Crimson still managed to come out on top.

"[The varsity] has been getting faster and faster every week," Todd said. "Finishing four seconds behind Yale in our California race gave us some motivation for the rest of the season. We have been picking up boat speed and hope to be able to catch them by the end of the year."

Both Harvard men's freshmen teams came in second place, with the Big Red notching victories in each race.

Women's Heavyweights

While the men's teams were blessed with good weather, their women counterparts weren't so lucky.

Racing against Brown in Providence, Radcliffe faced strong headwinds and rough conditions all throughout their races Saturday morning and afternoon. The women's heavyweight teams were able to finish their matches against the Bears, but the bad weather forced the lightweight squad to cancel all their matches.

Despite the unfavorable conditions, the varsity eight ran a competitive race in the 1500-meter run until the very end as they came in five seconds behind their rivals with a time of 8:10.0.

"We were both battling an incredible headwind," sophomore Michelle Guerette said. "It was an amazing race to go through. We had a very good start and were leading until the 500-meter mark, but Brown ran a solid race."

Yet losing to last year's national champions by such a narrow margin gives hope to the Radcliffe squad.

"I think the margin of victory shows a lot about how competitive we are this year," Guerette said. "If this race was any indication, we're really going to have a fast boat this year. We're definitely excited."

The women's heavyweight fours also lost to Brown after placing seven seconds behind the Bears with a time of 4:43. The freshmen eights placed behind the Bears as well, finishing with a time of 8:06.4, exactly eight seconds behind the winning time.

The women's lightweights had a meet in New Jersey snowed out this weekend.

The men's heavyweights return to action this weekend at Brown in the Stein Cup. The men's lightweights host Dartmouth and MIT.

The women's heavyweight will travel to Princeton to take on the Tigers and Cornell. The women's lightweights will host an opponent that is to be determined.