PRINCETON, N.J. - With the women's rowing season fast approaching the Division I Preseason 2021 Pocock CRCA Poll presented by USRowing was announced on Wednesday. Competitors in each of the last four NCAA Championships, the Navy women's rowing program was ranked 13th overall in the national poll.

Voted on by coaches from across the NCAA Division I women's rowing community, the University of Washington will open the 2021 season as the nation's number one team. The Huskies swept the Division I championships in 2019. Washington received 19 of the 25 first-place votes. The University of Texas ranked second, earning the remaining six, first-place votes. The University of Michigan ranked third, followed by Stanford University in fourth. The University of California, Berkeley rounded out the top five.

The list of Power 5 Conference schools continue until reaching Navy at No. 13. In fact, the Mids and No. 20 SMU Mustangs are the only two programs ranked in the top-20 that are not from the Pac-12, Big 12, Big Ten, ACC or SEC conferences.

Under the direction of sixth-year head coach Joe Schlosberg, Navy has cemented its place as one of the nation's most competitive programs and a consistent team to watch at the NCAA DI Championships. Winners of the last five Patriot League Championships, including the last four under Schlosberg; 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, the Mids have tested themselves in national regular season meets such as the Clemson Invitational, the Lake Wheeler Invitational and the Doc Hosea Invitational as preparation for the year-ending NCAA Championships. Over the past four years, Navy has finished 19th at the 2016 NCAA Championships, 20th at the 2017 event, 17th at the 2018 meet and 17th at the most recent national championships in 2019 (the 2020 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.).