A momentous season ended in bittersweet fashion for both Penn men’s rowing teams Saturday.

For the third straight season, the Penn men’s heavyweight rowing team will enter the IRA Championships with a fresh taste of defeat.

With exams over, the crews have the luxury of more sleep, which can only help the Quakers as they head into Sunday’s Eastern Sprints Championships.

Stuart Milne takes a crash course in the life of a Quakers coxswain but his only experience with rowing is watching Great Britain win Olympic gold in Athens six years ago.

The men’s lightweight and women’s crews took to Princeton’s Lake Carnegie with the aim of upsetting the respective No. 1 and No. 2 Tigers. But Princeton was up to the task, emerging victorious in both contests.

The Quakers placed third in the race for the Blackwell Cup, dropping all but one of their races — the Novice 8 — to two top-ranked opponents.

While all three rowing teams are in action this weekend in Ivy competition, the men’s heavyweight squad knows better than the rest what to expect from its conference opponent.

It might come as a surprise to some as they watch the Penn men’s rowing teams that most bellowing instructions out on the water come from females.

The Quakers were 0.5 seconds short of victory over Cornell Saturday afternoon.

The Penn women’s rowing team may not be facing off against traditional rivals Saturday, but, Penn coach Mike Lane promised a challenging contest with major implications.

No. 8 Penn and the No. 11 Big Green took two first-place finishes apiece, but a superior finish in the varsity eight race help Dartmouth carry the day, with the Quakers placing second, ahead of No. 12 MIT.

Coming off a victorious opening meet last weekend, the Penn men’s lightweight rowing team hopes its performance — and ranking — will carry over.

The men’s lightweight squad overcame its recent struggles against Delaware, taking three of four races, while men’s heavyweight split four races with George Washington. Meanwhile, on the women’s side, the Quakers were swept by a top-ranked Yale squad.

The Quakers open their spring season against George Washington, a team that new Penn coach Greg Myhr led to the Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championships last year.

Both men's rowing teams compete in Head of the Charles regatta

Both of the Penn men’s crew teams will compete in the 45th annual Head of the Charles race in Boston this weekend.