There were any number of things that could've stopped the Navy women from repeating as Patriot League championships in 2016; a brand-new head coach, tough competition from BU and Bucknell, or some fairly severe breakage just a few hundred meters into the Varsity Eight final.
To the credit of the women from Annapolis, none of them did.
"It just seems surreal right now," said Navy coach Joe Schlosberg, who assumed the post after the retirement of long-time Navy mentor Mike Hughes this past summer. "We had to do some work to get there, and it took everyone. I could not be more proud of this team and the staff."
Despite being the defending champs going into the 2016 Patriot championships, the Navy women did not have a sure thing today; with both BU and Bucknell fielding strong teams, and with the results from the heats showing next to exact parity in all three NCAA events, this one was going down to the slide rule at the end of the day.
After Navy and Bucknell traded wins in the V4 and 2V8, with BU finishing third each time, BU blasted out of the gates in the V8 to power ahead, with Navy, MIT and Bucknell all giving chase. BU's win was never in doubt, while Navy held on for 2nd over MIT, who won their first Patriot League medal since 2014 today.
This Varsity result could just as easily have gone a dramatically different way however, as the Navy V8 managed their silver medal finish after rowing the final 1800 meters or so of the Grand with a snapped rigger pin; score one for determination.
"To have the athlete row the way she did, without the rigger really attached to the boat, it just showed the grit that the team developed, it's just fantastic," said Schlosberg.
The final points tally was heartbreaking; it was Navy by just 1 point over BU for the automatic bid to the NCAA championships.
All of this made for a stressful, but ultimately elating day for the Mids staff. "I wanted to come in and not screw things up," said Schlosberg. "I wanted to come in and bring this program forward and show them what they could really do. It was a challenging year, for me, and for this team, as we went through this transition, and we still have a ways to go."
With their season now a few weeks longer, Schlosberg said that his team was ready to go. "We have to take this racing as a learning experience, see how hard we can go, and then see if we can find another level," he said. "It's about momentum throughout the year, we know that we will be lining up with some incredibly fast teams, and we just have to go out there, be fearless and try and pull as hard as we can."
The BU Women's 1V was named the 2016 Patriot League "Boat of the Year," while BU coach Stacey Rippetoe was voted 2016 "Coach of the Year."
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