April 25, 2005

The Navy women's crew team produced an impressive day of racing at the inaugural Patriot League Championship, held Sunday on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass., winning each of the three individual boat titles by a combined 60 seconds, winning the overall team title and garnering coach and boat-of-the-year accolades.

"It was a great day for us," said Navy head coach Mike Hughes, the 2005 Patriot League Coach of the Year. "We are honored to have won the inaugural league championship."

Navy won the varsity race with a time of 8:02.88, a margin of over 20 seconds in front of second-place Colgate's time of 8:23.51. Navy also claimed the second varsity title with a time of 8:33.91, with Colgate placing second (8:55.44), as well as the varsity four title with a clocking of 9:49.50. Holy Cross would finish in second place in the varsity four race in a time of 10:07.9.

Navy's varsity boat was selected by the coaches from the five schools as the league's boat of the year.

The three victories also enabled Navy to win the overall team title with a perfect score of 30 points, with Colgate second with 22 points and Holy Cross third with 17 points. Rounding out the final scores were Bucknell in fourth place at 15 points and Lehigh in fifth place with six points.

"Our plan in each race was to make an early move and take the lead right from the start of each race," said Hughes. "We were able to do just that, but what I liked the most was seeing when we did take the lead we kept racing hard throughout the course.

"The only reason I was named coach of the year was because of the efforts of our individual rowers. The award is theirs, as well as (assistant coach) Nicky Stimpson's, who coached our varsity four boat."

In addition to the three races as part of the official five-team Patriot League Championship, the Patriot League Challenge was held and included the five varsity programs, as well as the remaining three schools in the league who do not offer women's rowing as a varsity sport. In those two races Navy placed first in the novice eight and third in the novice four divisions.

The Mids will next face Rutgers Saturday on Lake Mercer in New Jersey.