The GW crew team’s fall season is a time of hard work and preparation for the sprint racing in the spring. Last weekend the men’s and women’s teams entered their top boats in the Princeton Chase on Lake Carnegie in Princeton, N.J.

The men’s team faced tough competition in the Men’s Heavyweight Eight Event in which they fielded two boats. The first varsity boat finished in 16th place with a time of 14:28.40, followed by the second varsity boat in 17th place (15:32.50). Princeton won the race with time of 12:52.70.

In the Men’s Heavyweight Four race, GW’s second boat placed 16th with a time of 16:23.49, while the first boat crossed the finish line in 19th place (17:36.81). GW finished 12th with a time of 20:03.20 in the Men’s Pair event, which Cornell won (16:42.50). Men’s coach Gene Kininimonth expressed some disappointment in his team’s performance.

Technically they are coming along but we have a long way to go up the learning curve before results can be achieved that any of them will be happy with, Kininmonth said. And that only comes with hard work.

On the Women’s side, GW’s first Varsity Eight placed 16th in the Women’s Open Eight with a time of 16:08.00. Princeton (14:46.00) squeaked by Yale (14:48.00) to win the event while Boston University came in third.

Women’s coach Steve Peterson was very pleased with his boat’s performance.

Our 16th-place finish was the ninth fastest college crew, Peterson said. It was a marked improvement over last week’s result at the Head of the Charles. More importantly, we knocked off some good crews who we lost to last week, namely University of Pennsylvania and Dartmouth (College). We also beat Georgetown for the third time this year.

GW’s women’s pair posted a time of 20:27.14, which was good enough for fourth place, in the event won by the University of Virginia (19:25.79).

Both the men and women’s Varsity crews will compete in their final fall races at the Head of the Occoquan Saturday.