NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The Yale lightweights raced against Georgetown Saturday for their sole home race this spring. The morning was won by the Bulldogs, but it wasn't easy as the Hoyas gave the Yale varsity a battle all the way to the end.

Yale and Georgetown's first varsity crews were red hot coming into this weekend, each coming off strong victories in New Jersey last Saturday. Georgetown was ranked fifth and surging as they came into Derby at 3-1 after beating Mercyhurst, Delaware and Columbia while having only a narrow loss to Princeton in March.

The Bulldogs were also on the upswing, having upset No. 1 Navy the week before at Mercer Lake, and looking forward to racing at home for the first time in three years.

The predicted close contest between the two teams turned out to be exactly that as a thrilling varsity race gave both crews the noted "Gilder roar" while they raced to the finish line in front of the large home crowd lining the Gilder Boathouse balcony.

The race had drama right from the beginning as the last race of the day saw the first drops of rain after storm clouds gathered. Off the start, Yale secured a small lead and extended it over the first 1000 meters of the race. As the crews began the last half of the race, the sun and a headwind emerged, as did a big rally by the Hoya crew to close the gap to the Eli varsity. Both crews pressed hard to the line, and the Hoya rally fell short as the Yale varsity held strong and won with a margin of 1.6 seconds.

Prior to the Yale 1V's victory, the junior varsity got back to winning ways with a solid performance in fast conditions. The Yale 2V jumped Georgetown at the start, taking a length lead and never turning back. As their bow crossed the line, the Bulldogs finished with a length of open water over the Hoyas.

Before the battles of the eights, the 3V coxed fours kicked off the regatta. The Bulldogs entered two boats to the Hoyas' one, and both Yale fours crossed the finish line with an open water advantage ahead of the Georgetown four.

Below are the official results from this morning's racing:

1V:
Yale 5:27.8
Georgetown 5:29.4

2V:
Yale 5:28.6
Georgetown 5:34.1

3V 4+:
Yale A 6:07.0
Yale B 6:12.0
Georgetown 6:23.9

The Y150's spring campaign will continue next Saturday in Philadelphia, where they will take on Columbia and Penn for the Dodge Cup.