Feb. 15, 2007
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy gymnastics team (7-6) will compete in the final meet of a four-meet road swing when it travels to San Francisco for the All-Academy Championship against Air Force (2-5) and Army (7-4) on Saturday, starting at 7 p.m. PST in Herbst Pavilion.
Despite eclipsing the 200-point mark last Saturday, the Midshipmen were defeated by Army, 207.9-200.45, in the Star Meet at West Point. The Mids and Black Knights also met each other during the West Point Open, where the hosts outscored Navy, 197.75-190.25. In addition to this weekend's action, Navy and Army will face each other one more time at the ECAC/EIGL Championship in March. This Saturday's meet will be the lone meeting between Navy and Air Force in the gym this season.
At last year's All-Academy Championship in Aliso Viejo, Calif., Army squeezed past Navy to capture its sixth-consecutive title. The Black Knights totaled 200.75 points, followed by Navy's 200.7 points and Air Force's 179.475 points. The Midshipmen are looking to capture their first All-Academy Championship since the annual event began in 2000.
Navy junior all-around gymnast Christopher Tam (Draper, Utah) will look to lead the Mids in multiple disciplines on Saturday. Tam, the 20th-ranked all-around gymnast in the country, has scored an 8.0 or higher in four of the six events three times this year. The all-around is shaping up to be an interesting competition between Tam and Army's Mike Assenmacher, ranked 13th nationally. Tam topped Assenmacher at the West Point Open, but the Army gymnast bounced back to claim the all-around title last weekend.
One of the most tightly contested events of the day could come on the still rings, where there's less than two-tenths of a point separating each team's top performer's average. Tam leads the Midshipmen with an average score of 8.387, while Army's Joseph Baumann owns an 8.5-point average and Air Force's Jacob Schonig has averaged 8.317 points this season.
Navy sophomore Joseph Atzenbeck (Broomfield, Colo.) scored above 8.0 in three events last weekend and leads the team in two disciplines this year. Atzenbeck recorded an 8.75 on the parallel bars last weekend during his first action in the event this season, while scoring 8.7 points on the high bar and 8.35 points on the pommel horse. He ranks 23rd nationally on the parallel bars (8.750) and 27th on the high bar (8.512) this year.
Junior Brandon Cook (Longmont, Colo.) holds Navy's highest scoring average in both the floor exercise and vault events. Cook has scored an 8.5 or high in all four meets, posting an 8.75 average mark on the year. His ranking score is less than five-hundredths of a point lower than Assenmacher's average performance in 2007. On the vault, Cook owns an 8.217-point average in three attempts in the discipline this season.
Following this weekend's meet, the Midshipmen will return to Annapolis to host their final home meet of the year against James Madison next Saturday in Macdonough Hall.
