A sun-soaked Washington Harbor provided the backdrop for the 18th annual GW Invitational Crew Classic on Saturday. Schools from around the nation joined the Colonials, including local rivals Georgetown, George Mason, Navy, and the University of Virginia.

Virginia captured the overall title, taking four first-place finishes, three second-places, and two third-place finishes to compile 67 points in front of a crowd of over a 1,000, many of which sat at outdoor patios at Harbor restaurants next to the Potomac River. The first place overall victory allows the Cavaliers to take the Gilbert H. Hood Jr. trophy back to Charlottesville until next April. The trophy is awarded annually to the highest aggregated point total.

The Colonials finished second out of the 12 teams with a total of 51 points. The GW women’s varsity eight boat was the Colonials’ most successful of the day, beating Georgetown, Villanova University, and West Virginia University with a time of 6:23.80. With the win, the women captured the Howard Wilkins Bowl, annually awarded to the winner of this race. GW also ended up with the 1998 Trophy, which is awarded to the boat with the faster time between Georgetown and GW.

“It’s great,” said women’s head coach Helen Betancourt. “It’s always wonderful to win on your home course and in front of a big crowd like this. It’s nice to see us string together a series of good races and a final.”

The men’s varsity eight and the Oliver T. Carr trophy went to Navy, which beat Georgetown, Marietta, and Virginia with a time of 5:28.80. North Carolina, Georgetown, and Virginia knocked out GW in the preliminaries. In the consolation petite race, the Colonials finished second behind North Carolina with a time of 5:45.80.

“The men’s eight redeemed themselves in their petite final,” said men’s head coach Matt Boyle. “They came in second to beat some pretty quality crews so we’re definitely pleased with the way they are building speed.”

Freshman Matt Brady was disappointed with the finish but believes his team can make strides in the next few weeks.

“It was rough. The second race was better than the first,” said Brady. “We had technical problems but we felt better with the second race. We are making improvements. In the next week hopefully we can get more water time and that will help us keep up with better crews.”

The GW women’s freshman eight came in first place out of five boats. Their strong performance shows the stability of the program and the promise for the future, Betancourt said.

“It’s great for the future of the program to have a freshman eight win and beat Virginia, one of the top programs in the country,” said Betancourt. “To be able to come away with a win in that one is great for our future. They should be proud of what they did today.”

Freshman Liz Cavanaugh, a member of the women’s varsity eight boat, is proud of her crew’s accomplishments and hopes to make contributions in the future.

“We work hard for the wins and have done pretty well in the past few races,” said Cavanaugh. “I’m happy with the win we had today.”

The race marks the halfway point in the team’s schedules. Next week the men and the women travel to Camden, N.J. for the Knecht Cup.