It was a tough day for No. 8 Texas rowing as it fell to No. 4 Virginia in all four of their races Friday.

The Longhorns began the day with the 2nd Varsity 4 race, in which two of Texas’ boats raced against one Virginia boat. Texas A finished with a time of 7:06.7, beating Texas B by two seconds but falling to Virginia by seven seconds.

Texas especially struggled in the 1st Varsity 4 race, where the Cavaliers beat their time of 7:01.7 by 11 seconds.

The 2nd Varsity 8 race proved to be the closest of the day. The Longhorns mounted a furious comeback attempt to almost beat Virginia, but ultimately fell by two seconds.

The 1st Varsity 8 race ended the regatta, where Texas’ time of 6:03.2 came up short compared to Virginia’s time of 5:58.8.

The races were moved to Walter E. Long Lake after the flow of Lady Bird Lake increased, making racing there difficult. According to head coach Dave O’Neill, this was one of the many factors that the Longhorns had to overcome before the race.

“The last couple of weeks have been kind of a whirlwind, with illnesses, injuries, storms, and increased flow on the lake,” O’Neill said. “With all that said, I think our team actually got better than they were two weeks ago.”

Since competing against Virginia two weeks ago in the Clemson Invite, Texas narrowed their margins of loss in three of their races today. However, O’Neill said that Virginia equally matched Texas’ improvements.

“Virginia’s got a good team, and we need to do better to compete with a team like Virginia,” O’Neill said. “They’re getting better too — they got our best effort, we got their best effort.”

The Longhorns will next head to the Big 12 Championship on May 15th, though O’Neill has stated that Texas’ performances this season are likely good enough to secure the Longhorns a spot in the NCAA Championship without a Big 12 conference title.