ANNAPOLIS, Md. - After a strong regular season of high-level racing in regattas up and down the East Coast, the Navy women's rowing team gets the chance to battle for conference supremacy on Friday at the 2026 Patriot League Championship. Hosted on the Cooper River in Pennsauken, New Jersey, the league-wide regatta will see the Mids aiming to return to the top of the Patriot League hierarchy and earn a berth into the NCAA Championship that will be held later this month in Gainesville, Georgia. Winners of seven of the last 10 league championship regattas, the Mids will be on the hunt for the program's tenth all-time Patriot League title with four boats in action on Friday. All-time, Navy has won league titles in 2005, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2023.
The racing on Friday begins at 8:00 a.m. with preliminary heats before advancing to championship finals at 1:30 p.m. All of the action will be broadcast on ESPN+ with live results provided as well.
ESPN+ is a subscription-based streaming service that requires patrons to sign-up for monthly or yearly plans prior to tuning into the contest.
Navy's official race times for the morning prelims are set for 8:10 AM - Second Varsity Four (Heat 2) ... 8:30 AM - First Varsity Four (Heat 2) ... 8:50 AM - Second Varsity Eight (Heat 2) ... 9:10 AM - First Varsity Eight (Heat 2). Each classification will have two heats of either four or five crews. The top-three finishing boats in each of the two heats advance to grand final action, while the remaining squads will race in the petite finals for positions, seven through nine. This is the second year that the 2V4 event will be raced at the championship regatta as previously there were only three classifications of racing.
The championship will be scored on a weighted scale, with 4.5 points for the winner of the Second Varsity Four race, 45 points for the Varsity Four, 90 points for the Second Varsity Eight and 180 points for the Varsity Eight. The school accumulating the most total points in the four races will be crowned the Patriot League champion. If there is a tie for first place in the final point total, the higher-ranked finisher in the Varsity Eight race will be named the Patriot League champion. Awards will also be given for Coach of the Year and Boat of the Year.
The complete field at the Cooper River this Friday will consist of Boston University, Bucknell, Colgate, Georgetown, Holy Cross, Lehigh, Loyola, MIT and Navy.
Navy at the Patriot League Championship
Competing at the Patriot League Championship since 2005, the Mids have won 29 individual boat titles: seven in the first varsity eight, 11 in the second varsity eight and 11 in the first varsity four events. The program swept the three-race slate completely in 2005, 2015, 2019 and 2021. These boat titles had direct impact on Navy taking home the league team championship nine times: 2005, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2023. (There was no championship in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)
Last Five Patriot League Championships
2025: V8-6th ... 2V8-2nd ... V4-2nd ... 2V4-2nd
Boston 289.5 team points // Georgetown 267 // MIT 263.5 // Navy 204
2024: V8-2nd ... 2V8-4th ... V4-2nd
Boston 54 team points // Navy 44 // MIT 44 ... *V8 tie-breaker to Navy
2023: V8-1st ... 2V8-2nd ... V4-2nd
Navy 51 team points // Boston 51 ... *V8 tie-breaker to Navy
2022: V8-3rd ... 2V8-2nd ... V4-1st
Boston 50 team points // Bucknell 48 // Navy 46
2021: V8-1st ... 2V8-1st ... V4-1st
Navy 54 team points // Bucknell 47
Most Recent Patriot League Championship - May 16, 2025 in Pennsauken, N.J.
The Navy women's rowing team left it all out on the line on Friday as its four-boat fleet aimed to climb back atop the podium at the Patriot League Championship. After a morning of fast qualifying times put the Mids in position to succeed in a quartet of grand finals on the Cooper River in the afternoon, Navy's second varsity eight and both of its first and second varsity four crews all claimed silver medals to leave the team, just three points out of first with one race to go. Unfortunately for Navy, the action in the first varsity eight competition didn't break its way and Boston University was able to defend its crown as the 2025 Patriot League Champion.
In the final standings, Boston's victories in the first varsity eight, as well as in the first and second varsity four contests resulted in 289.5 points and the team title. Georgetown edged MIT for second place by 3.5 points, 267 to 263.5. Navy finished just off the podium in fourth place with 204 points. The rest of the leaderboard consisted of Bucknell in fifth at 193, Colgate in sixth at 131, Holy Cross in seventh at 127.5 with Lehigh and Loyola rounding out the competition in eighth and ninth place at 66.5 and 55.5, respectively.
Everything was up for grabs going into the first varsity eight races as the top-three teams were separated by less than 20 points as Georgetown led with 127 points, three ahead of Navy (124) and 17.5 ahead of Boston's 109.5-point total. With the added 2V4 event and new scoring system, every position in the leaderboard of the V8 race was worth 20 points starting with 180 for the winner. BU made sure they'd be back in the NCAA Championship as the automatic qualifier from the Patriot League as they sprinted out to a half-boat lead and had a near open-water advantage following 500 meters of racing. Rowing from the opposite side of the river in lane one, Navy was slightly off the pace and was battling with Colgate in fifth place as the race crossed the 1,000-meter mark. The Mids and Raiders caught up the Bucknell Bison and the race was on for fourth place. At the line, Bucknell had just enough left and finished fourth at 6:55.616, while Colgate took fifth and Navy sixth with times of 6:56.647 and 6:57.565, respectively.
Friday's Schedule of Events
Heat Racing
8:10 AM - Second Varsity Four (Heat 2)
#6 Colgate, #2 Navy, #3 Georgetown, #7 Lehigh
8:30 AM - First Varsity Four (Heat 2)
#6 Bucknell, #2 Georgetown, #3 Navy, #7 Lehigh
8:50 AM - Second Varsity Eight (Heat 2)
#6 Holy Cross, #2 Navy, #3 MIT, #7 Lehigh
9:10 AM - First Varsity Eight (Heat 2)
#6 Georgetown, #2 Bucknell, #3 Navy, #7 Holy Cross
Finals (Top-Three in Each Heat Advance to Grand Finals / Rest to Petite Finals)
1:30 PM - Second Varsity Four - Petite Final (Positions 7-9)
1:40 PM - First Varsity Four - Petite Final
1:50 PM - Second Varsity Eight - Petite Final
2:00 PM - First Varsity Eight - Petite Final
2:10 PM - Second Varsity Four - Grand Final (Positions 1-6)
2:20 PM - First Varsity Four - Grand Final
2:30 PM - Second Varsity Eight - Grand Final
2:40 PM - First Varsity Eight - Grand Final
**Note, the awards ceremony is slated to begin at 3:30 PM
