April 12, 2007
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Navy junior all-around gymnast Christopher Tam (Draper, Utah) finished among the top 30 in three disciplines for a 10th-place finish in the all-around as the Midshipmen concluded their season during the second session of the NCAA Qualifying Meet at Penn State's Rec Center on Thursday evening.
The top-three all-around gymnasts not affiliated with the top-three teams during the session advanced to the all-around national championship tomorrow evening. The top-three gymnasts in each event not already competing as an all-around participant or with a team qualified for the NCAA Championship individual event prelims on Friday night.
Host Penn State paced the field in session two with 218.9 points, followed by Oklahoma's 218.6 points and Minnesota's 216.9 points. California's Kyson Bunthuwong (53.8 points), Nebraska's Jason Wassung (52.7 points) and Nebraska's Stephen Tetrault (52.35 points) advanced as the three unattached all-around qualifiers for Friday's competition.
Tam racked up a score of 49.85 points over the six disciplines, scoring higher than an 8.0 in five of those events. The Navy junior's best effort came on the high bar, where he finished 15th with an 8.85 from the judges. He placed 22nd on the pommel horse with an 8.3 and started his evening with a 27th-place score of 8.8 points in the floor exercise. The product of Draper, Utah, also earned an 8.35 on the still rings and an 8.05 on the parallel bars.
Navy junior Brandon Cook (Longmont, Colo.) nearly qualified for Friday's action in a pair of events on Thursday night. Cook registered a 9.05-point performance, his third-highest score of the year, in the floor exercise to finish in 19th place. He returned to see action on the vault, where he stuck his landing to come in 20th place with an 8.75, his second-best effort of the 2007 slate.
Sophomore Joseph Atzenbeck (Broomfield, Colo.) took part in three events for the Midshipmen during the national qualifier. He placed 20th during the second session with an 8.35 on the pommel horse, 24th on the parallel bars with an 8.5 and 31st on the high bar with an 8.35. His effort on Thursday represented the fifth time that he scored above an 8.0 three disciplines during the same meet this year.
Classmate Adam Stanton (Centennial, Colo.) also partook in multiple events for Navy on Thursday night. He finished 39th on the parallel bars with a 7.85 and came in 38th place on the pommel horse with a 6.95.
Junior high bar specialist Isaac Olson (Spokane, Wash.) received an 8.75 from the judges to finish 17th during the session. Senior team captain Sean Blackman (Fayetteville, Ga.) posted an 8.6 on the still rings for 31st place and junior Jon-Michael Chombeau (Beaverton, Ore.) finished 36th on the vault with an 8.15.
