PRINCETON, N.J. - The Intercollegiate Rowing Coaches Association (IRCA) announced its 2026 postseason awards this week and the Navy heavyweight rowing program was recognized with a pair of Empacher-IRCA All-Americans as senior Ben Vogel (Arlington, Va.) was named to the first team with junior Nathaniel Duffy (Fairfield, Conn.) earning a spot on the second team. Additionally, 12 fellow Mids garnered Empacher-IRCA Scholar-Athlete honors.

Led by Vogel and Duffy's effort, Navy's first varsity eight finished its 2026 season with a 14th-place result at the year-end IRA National Championship. The crew's time at Lake Natoma began with a competitive fifth-place finish in its qualifying heat that saw it edged out of fourth by less than two seconds and within 6.5 seconds of obtaining the final AB Semifinal berth that went to third-place Syracuse. On the second day of action, Vogel, Duffy and the V8 boat showed out with a dominant performance in its respective CD Semifinal with a 2.04-second margin of victory over Columbia, 5:52.290 to 5:54.330 to secure a top-two seed in Sunday's C Final. Racing against five teams that finished the regular season ranked ahead of them in the final national poll, the No. 21 Navy V8 flew past No. 14 Wisconsin, No. 15 Columbia, No. 18 Georgetown and No. 19 Holy Cross before coming up just 0.159 seconds shy of No. 13 Cornell's victorious time of 5:47.435 versus a 5:47.594 mark for the Mids. 

Vogel rowed from the seventh seat during the IRAs with Duffy right ahead of him in the stroke seat. This is the second IRCA All-American honor of Vogel's career as he was noted as an Honorable Mention All-American in 2024 following his sophomore season. Duffy has now attained IRCA All-American Second Team status in back-to-back seasons.

This is the sixth time that men's collegiate rowing as a sport has acknowledged its top performing athletes through the IRCA 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, 106 rowers and coxswains 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 2026. As a program, Navy had four All-Americans across the heavyweight and lightweight divisions.

12 members of the heavyweight team were additionally recognized as 2026 IRCA Scholar-Athletes. Recent graduates  Nick Duncan (Farmington, Conn. - quantitative economics), Nathan Pawlowicz (Augusta, Mich. - honors oceanography) and Benjamin Vogel (Arlington, Va. - aerospace engineering) led the way as they each collected his third career IRCA Scholar-Athlete nod. Fellow May grad Greyson Goddard (Ward, Ark. - electrical engineering) earned his first IRCA Scholar-Athlete laurel. Rising seniors Vladyslav Khanas (Queens, N.Y. - nuclear engineering) and Tyler Smolensky (Red Bank, N.J. - aerospace engineering) are now two-time honorees, while classmates Isaiah Shuchman (Philadelphia, Pa. - data science) and Eli Webre (Bountiful, Utah - operations research). have been selected for the first time in their respective careers. Rising juniors George Bentley (Fairfield, Conn. - political science), Emmett Kloss (Crofton, Md. - operations research), Charlie Tomasi (Shorewood, Wisc. - physics) and Luke Welch (Dallas, Texas - cyber operations) round out Navy's high scholastic achievers with their first career accolades.
 
For the 2026 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 705 rowers and coxswains from 57 different teams who met the criteria set by the IRCA Awards & Polling Committee.