ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Navy women's rowing first varsity eight boat and Navy track and field's Clayton Thompson and Molly Mangan were announced on Tuesday as this week's recipients of the Naval Academy Athletic Association (NAAA) Athlete-of-the-Week Award, presented by Northrop Grumman. The Mids' top varsity crew was honored for their award-winning performance at the Patriot League Championship on Friday, while Thompson and Mangan played pivotal roles in Navy men's and women's teams sweeping the IC4A/ECAC Championships this past weekend in Springfield, Mass.

Navy's first varsity boat was strong throughout the championship on Friday on the Cooper River as the Mids cruised to a 16.064-second margin of victory in their opening heat race before coming back and clinching the clean sweep and team title for the program in the V8 Grand Final. Seeding first in the contest, Navy opened stroke-for-stroke with Boston and Bucknell over the first 500 meters. The Mids slowly started making their move after this opening stanza and broke out into the lead over the next 100 meters. Navy continued accelerating away from the field and pulled away to as much as an eight-seat lead over Bucknell at the 1,500-meter mark. Down the stretch, the Bison challenged the Mids with a last ditch sprint in the final 100-200 meters, but Navy would not be denied and defeated Bucknell by 2.748 seconds, 6:34.638 to 6:37.386 to earn the victory. Sarah Zanzuri, Margaret Lane, Millie Oldham, Hanna Prince, Alexandria Vallancey-Martinson, Lauren Day, Brooke Campbell, Ellie Dabney and coxswain Polly Finch made up the lineup that earned 2021 Patriot League Boat of the Year honors.

The six-time defending Patriot League Champions will now turn their attention to action at the 2021 NCAA Championship in Sarasota, Fla. The three-day national championship competition will run May 28 through 30 at Nathan Benderson Park.