PENNSAUKEN, N.J. – The 2026 season came to a conclusion for the Navy women's rowing team on Friday with action at the annual Patriot League Championship. In search of the program's tenth league crown the Mids were unable to knock off the Boston University Terriers, who swept the four-race regatta for their third straight league title. At the end of a day full of competition, Navy ended up third in the team standings with 209 points. The team's effort on the Cooper River was led by a silver medal-winning race from its 2V4 crew and a bronze medal-winning race from its V4 boat.
The entire leaderboard on Friday consisted of BU in first with 319.5 out of a possible 319.5 points, Bucknell second with 242 points, Navy third with 209 points and MIT just missing the podium with 190 points. Georgetown rounded out the top five with 183.5 points, while Holy Cross placed sixth at 157.5. The final three teams in order were Colgate (151.5 points), Lehigh (108) and Loyola (36).
"I'm proud of this team for the effort that they put forth today," remarked head coach
Joe Schlosberg. "We had some really good moments where we displayed the growth that we've made throughout the year.
"It's awesome that the fours were able to get on the podium today and that the team was able to climb up from a fourth-place finish last year to third."
After Navy's four crews all finished first in their respective qualifying heats in the morning, the action in the afternoon kicked off with the second varsity four grand final. The championship race opened evenly as both Navy and Boston University broke out of the starting blocks in near synchronicity. As the two front-runners reached the quarter mark of the 2,000-meter race, the Mids were slightly ahead of the Terriers, though the lead was short-lived as BU overtook Navy within the next 200 meters. The Terriers continued accelerating down the course and had an open water lead over the field by the 1,000-meter mark. BU and Navy stayed in that order over the second have of the race, though the Mids had to hold off a surging Georgetown crew in the final quarter of the contest. At the finish line, Boston clocked in first at 7:26.480, 9.271 seconds ahead of Navy's 7:35.751 and 12.116 seconds faster than Georgetown's 7:38.596.
In the ensuing first varsity four event, the same trio of crews controlled the action as Navy and Georgetown were even after the opening sprint before Boston pulled even and all three boats passed the 500-meter marker within a stroke of each other. Similar to the 2V4 contest a strong second quarter of the race by the Terriers changed the complexion of the race as BU sprinted away for an open water advantage over the next 500 meters. Georgetown also made a significant move during this stretch and had a near open water margin over Navy by the mid-way mark. That order of BU, Georgetown and Navy stayed the same during the final 1,000 meters as the Terriers won by 7.872 seconds over the Hoyas, 7:16.549 to 7:24.421. The Mids were slightly over four seconds back in third place with a time of 7:28.541.
The second varsity eight struggled to re-create the medal-winning performances from the two previous races as a tough start left Navy's 2V8 sitting in sixth place at the 500-meter mark. The Mids quickly re-grouped and made an effective move to overtake the Lehigh Mountain Hawks and move into fifth place. Unfortunately, Navy was unable to move further up the standings and had to settle for fifth place in this event with a time of 6:51.684 that was over eight seconds behind fourth-place Georgetown's 6:43.259 and nearly three seconds to the plus side of Lehigh's 6:54.655.
With Boston University opening the session of grand final racing with three wins in three events, Navy's hopes of winning the team title revolved around winning the first varsity eight competition and hoping for a series of breaks to go its way. Alas, BU had a different idea and earned its fourth win in four races to claim the team title and automatic bid into the NCAA Championship. It wasn't straight forward or easy as Bucknell broke out to the early lead with MIT close behind. Navy and BU were bunched in a tightly packed foursome a few seats back with Colgate and Georgetown. The field started to separate over time as Bucknell, BU and Navy were in-sync at the 500-meter mark and within three seats of each other at the halfway point. In the second half of the race, the Terriers moved out to a three-seat advantage over the Bison, who had approximately five seats on the Mids 1,500 meters into the contest. In the final quarter of the race, MIT and Colgate joined the tussle and challenged Navy for that third-place position. With less than 250 meters to go, the Engineers pushed ahead of the Mids and secured third place by just 0.715 seconds, 6:30.845 to 6:31.560. The Terriers placed first at 6:26.042 with the Bison close behind with a 6:28.018 effort.
Boston University will now represent the Patriot League at the 2026 NCAA Championship in Gainesville, Ga. on the weekend of May 29-31.
"I'm proud of the effort that our senior class has put into this program both on and off the water. They've left an indelible mark on this team that we will continue to build off of. We thank them for their four years of hard work here at Navy and wish them the best as they move into the fleet and the corps.
"We have good foundation underneath us now and I'm excited to continue to build the program speed up in the future," said Schlosberg in closing.
Race Results
First Varsity Eight
Heat 2; 1st of 4 boats … 6:37.582
Grand Final
Boston University – 6:26.042
Bucknell – 6:28.018
MIT – 6:30.845
Navy – 6:31.560
Colgate – 6:34.802
Georgetown – 6:44.645
Second Varsity Eight
Heat 2; 1st of 4 boats … 6:56.092
Grand Final
Boston University – 6:33.426
Holy Cross – 6:40.090
Bucknell – 6:41.046
Georgetown – 6:43.259
Navy – 6:51.684
Lehigh – 6:54.655
First Varsity Four
Heat 2; 1st of 4 boats … 7:38.238
Grand Final
Boston University – 7:16.549
Georgetown – 7:24.421
Navy – 7:28.541
Colgate – 7:36.787
Lehigh – 7:43.287
MIT – 7:46.367
Second Varsity Four
Heat 2; 1st of 4 boats … 7:38.238
Grand Final
Boston University – 7:26.480
Navy – 7:35.751
Georgetown – 7:38.586
Lehigh – 7:55.865
Holy Cross – 8:00.574
Bucknell – 8:02.656
Boat Lineups
