Feb. 18, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO - Navy junior gymnast Christopher Tam (Draper, Utah) won the high bar and came second in the all-around as the Midshipmen placed second at the All-Academy Championship at Herbst Pavilion in San Francisco on Saturday night.

Army won the event for the seventh-straight year with a team score of 199.4 points, followed by Navy's 196.05 points and Air Force's 184.95 points. The Midshipmen were able to trim 4.1 points off the difference between their score and Army's team tally after last week's performance at the Star Meet in West Point.

Tam, the 20th-ranked all-around gymnast in the country, combined for 48.15 points among the six disciplines, only 0.5-point off of Mike Assenmacher's first-place score from Army. Tam's best performance came on the high bar, where he earned a season-high score of 9.2.

Sophomore Joseph Atzenbeck (Broomfield, Colo.) claimed gold on the parallel bars for the second-straight week on Saturday. He received an 8.45 from the judges after posting an 8.75 last week at Army in his first action in the event this season.

Making his first appearance on the still rings in 2007 was senior team captain Sean Blackman (Fayetteville, Ga.). He recorded a score of 8.7 in the event to place second.

Following his season-best performance on the pommel horse last week, junior Jon-Michael Chombeau (Beaverton, Ore.) finished third with a score of 8.0. Classmate Brandon Cook (Longmont, Colo.) registered an 8.65 in the floor exercise to tie for third, marking his fifth score of 8.5 or higher in the discipline in as many meets this year.

The Midshipmen (8-7) will return to Annapolis to host their final home meet of the year against James Madison next Saturday in Macdonough Hall.