PRINCETON, N.J. - The Intercollegiate Rowing Coaches Association (IRCA) recently announced its 2024 postseason awards and the Navy heavyweight rowing program was recognized as Matt Lexa (Jr., Wynnewood, Pa.) and Benjamin Vogel (So., Arlington, Va.) earned Empacher-IRCA All-American accolades and 12 additional Mids picked up Empacher-IRCA Scholar-Athlete honors. Lexa was named a Second Team All-American, while Vogel was noted as an Honorable Mention All-American.

Navy's youth and potential was acknowledged with its two 2024 All-American honorees. After moving up through the ranks of the program over his first two seasons in Annapolis, Lexa broke through during his junior year as a staple in the Mids' first varsity eight lineup. Earlier in his career, Lexa honed his craft with the second and third varsity eights during the majority of his action during his freshman and sophomore years. Vogel followed a similar path as he debuted last season with the second and fourth varsity eights as a freshman. This spring, Lexa and Vogel raced with the first varsity eight in every competition with either occupying the third or fifth seat in the boat; they flipped seats Vogel from three-to-five and Lexa from five-to-three prior to the Navy-Columbia tilt on May 5. Overall, the Mids' V8 placed first at the Occoquan Invitational, secured the Stevenson Cup over Columbia and knocked of Cornell in the Goes Trophy contest during the regular season before placing 11th at the Eastern Sprints and 15th at the IRA National Championship.

This is the fourth time that men's collegiate rowing as a sport has acknowledged its top performing athletes through the All-American program. In order to be named an All-American, rowers and coxswains must have been nominated by their institution and raced in the team's first varsity boat during the spring. The nominees were then selected to the first, second or honorable mention teams based on the strength of the first varsity's finish at the IRA's, as well as coach comments, individual achievements and erg scores. In total, 99 rowers and coxswain were named as either IRCA First Team All-Americans, IRCA Second Team All-Americans or IRCA Honorable Mention All-Americans across the ranks of heavyweight and lightweight crew in 2024. As a program, Navy had five All-Americans across the heavyweight and lightweight divisions.

12 members of the heavyweight team were additionally recognized as 2024 IRCA Scholar-Athletes. A pair of three-time honorees led the way with recent graduates Nick Bostock (Fishers, Ind. - aerospace engineering) and Ava Izenour (Poland, Ohio - political science) each collecting their third respective IRCA Scholar-Athlete nod. Fellow May grads, Ethan Barton (McBain, Mich. - aerospace engineering) and Adrien Richez (Atlanta, Ga. - aerospace engineering), as well rising senior Duncan Ayles (Westwood, Mass. - robotics & control engineering) all tallied their second scholar-athlete honor. First-time honorees on the 2024 list include, recent grad Alexander Coelho (Philadelphia, Pa. - mathematics w/economics), rising seniors Hunter Golly (Orem, Utah - aerospace engineering), Ryan Hollenbach (Davidsonville, Md. - operations research), Harrison Kaplan (Charlotte, N.C. - astrophysics) and rising juniors Nick Duncan (Farmington, Conn. - quantitative economics), Nathan Pawlowicz (Augusta, Mich. - honors oceanography) and Benjamin Vogel (Arlington, Va. - aerospace engineering) round out Navy's high scholastic achievers with their first career accolades.
 
For the 2024 season, all honorees needed to have completed their second season of eligibility, competed in their program's top-three boats during the regular season or raced at the IRA Championships in June and have a 3.50 cumulative GPA or higher through the end of the fall semester.  In total, there were 638 rowers and coxswains from 61 different teams who met the criteria set by the IRCA Awards & Polling Committee.