BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Coming off a strong and competitive of weekend of racing at the 2026 Lake Wheeler Invitational, the first varsity eight crew from Navy women's rowing was announced on Tuesday as the Patriot League Boat of the Week. The Mids raced in heats against four nationally-ranked teams and came out on top of Boston College, George Washington, Georgetown, Kansas (2x) and Villanova over a series of three races on Lake Wheeler in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Competing twice on Friday and once on Saturday, Navy posted a time of 6:41.100 to finish fourth in its initial race and knocked off Boston College (+4.49 seconds) and Georgetown (+17.32) before coming back in the afternoon and turning in a near identical time of 6:41.61 to place fifth of six crews in the heat. The Mids bested the Kansas Jayhawks in that contest by 4.87 seconds. On Saturday morning, Navy closed out its stay in North Carolina with its fastest time of the weekend at 6:37.81. That effort helped the Mids best the George Washington Revolutionaries by 4.4 seconds, the Jayhawks by 5.71 seconds and the Villanova Wildcats by 6.15 seconds.
The lineup of Navy's V8+ on Saturday consisted of
Paige Burke (So., Springfield, Va.),
Eleanor Snyder (Sr., Sherwood, Ore.),
Grace Rimmer (Sr., Phoenix, Ariz.),
Anna Yount (Sr., Loganville, Ga.),
Lucy Weems (Jr., Bethesda, Md.),
Kelly Fields (Sr., Westminster, Md.),
Lauren Dorfman (Sr., Rome, N.Y.),
Harlie Hanley (Jr., Culver, Ind.) and coxswain
Mary Catherine Harvey (Sr., Loch Arbour, N.J.).
This is the second Patriot League weekly award for the Navy women's rowing program this spring as the V8+ was named Boat of the Week on March 31.
Navy will now turn its attention to final exams and the Patriot League Championship. After focusing on their academics over the next two weeks, the Mids will fight for the right to secure the automatic qualifying berth to represent the Patriot League at the NCAA Championship. The league regatta in Pennsauken, New Jersey is set for Friday, May 15.
