Jan. 26, 2008
Results
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Navy gymnast Brandon Cook (Sr./Longmont, Colo.) won the floor exercise and placed second on the vault to lead the Midshipmen to a first-place team score against William & Mary and Springfield in the Navy Open on Saturday afternoon in Macdonough Hall.
Navy improved to 5-1 on the year after boasting the field's best score on the floor exercise (57.8 points), still rings (55.8 points) and parallel bars (56.65 points) en route to an overall score of 336.9 points, 4.65 points higher than the week before. William & Mary, the defending USAG Collegiate Division champion, placed second with 333.1 points for second place and Springfield rounded out the collegiate division with 321.4 points.
"I was real pleased with the team's performance last week and today to a certain extent," stated Navy head coach Sho Fukushima. "We are just three weeks removed from the holidays, so we are still adjusting. In another week or so, things should start to settle down and see who's going to be in the lineup. It's good to see that there still is lots of room for improvement and we're not peaking right now."
Cook opened his day with an outstanding performance on the floor exercise. He delivered a 15.25-point score in a near flawless routine to distance himself from eventual second-place performer David Locke's 14.85 from William & Mary. Three events later, he earned a 15.15 from the judges on the vault to finish only 0.30-point off Locke's effort two rotations before. In both events, Cook's starting value was a 15.8.
Navy trailed William & Mary heading into the final rotation, 282.05-281.95, with the Midshipmen competing on the high bar and the Tribe working on the pommel horse. Down to its final competitor, Navy's Christopher Tam (Sr./Draper, Utah) produced a solid 14.75-point effort with a 15.2-point start value to propel the Mids to victory. With his performance on the final apparatus, Tam won the all-around with a total of 81.0 points.
Two other Navy gymnasts produced the second-highest marks on the day. In his first collegiate home meet, rookie Dylan Parrott (Fr./Rockwell, N.C.) scored a 14.5 on the parallel bars to finish second overall. Parrott and Tam also landed third on the still rings with a 14.15.
Adam Stanton (Jr./Centennial, Colo.), the reigning USAG Collegiate Division National and ECAC Gymnast of the Week, placed second on the pommel horse with a 13.5. Stanton and Joseph Atzenbeck (Jr./Broomfield, Colo.) tied for third on the parallel bars with a 14.2 from the judges. Atzenbeck also finished third on the pommel horse with a 13.3.
The Midshipmen return to action next Saturday when they head to McGonigle Hall in Philadelphia to compete against Temple and Ohio State. Action is slated for a 7 p.m. start.
