BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The Patriot League announced its first set of weekly honors on Tuesday and Navy's Murphy Smith was the recipient of the conference's Rookie of the Week award. Smith was selected by the league for his efforts in the Mids' season opening race at the Salisbury Fall Classic on Saturday.

In his first collegiate competition, the Charlotte, N.C. native challenged for the individual championship as he clocked in with a time of 25:15.85 that was within nine seconds of Rowan's Justin Kelly, who won the overall title at 25:06.92. Smith's effort ranked him third in the field of 81 runners. Amongst the 40-plus first-year runners in the event, Smith was the first freshman to cross the finish line. Salisbury's Matt Grossi was 15.46 seconds back in fourth place as the next closest freshman.

As a team, Smith helped lead Navy to the championship as the Mids totalled 32 team points, eight more than Rowan.

Smith and Navy will be back in action this Friday with the 2021 Navy XC Classic. The men's race is scheduled for a 6:40 p.m. start.