March 21, 2014
Final Team & All-Around Results
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy gymnastics team took fourth place in the varsity division at the USA Gymnastics Collegiate Championships on Friday at Macdonough Hall. Posting their third highest score of the season at 413.65, the Midshipmen finished behind a strong field that included the five-time defending champions, Air Force.
Air Force took the team crown once again as it posted a score of 426.70 to hold off William & Mary (422.75) and Army (414.60). Navy's 413.65 barely missed finishing amongst the top-three as it came in 0.95 points shy of Army. Springfield rounded out the varsity division competitors with a 403.10 score.
Navy had six gymnasts earn top six finishes to aid the team's overall effort on Friday. Joshua Steves (Jr., Houston, Texas) led the way for the Midshipmen as he placed highly in both the vault and the rings. In the vault, he netted a career-high score of 14.85 to edge out his teammate Mitchell Larios (So., Frisco, Texas), who finished fourth with a score of 14.6. Steves was part of another back-to-back finish on the rings as he earned a sixth-place finish of 14.5 to finish just 0.1 points behind Chris Junghans (Sr., Dunkirk, Md.), who scored a career-best, 14.6.
Andrew Potts (So., Ellicott City, Md.) was Navy's leading performer on the pommel horse as he posted the fourth highest score of 14.25.
Juniors Thomas Goodell (Hopkinton, Mass.) and Eric Viscardi (Marietta, Ga.) were the final two gymnasts from Navy to place amongst the top six as Goodell scored a career-best 14.3 on the high bar, while Viscardi matched his career-high with a 14.7 result in the floor exercise.
As a team, the Mids scored a 68.15 in the floor exercise, 68.10 on the pommel horse, 71.00 on the rings, 71.25 on the vault, 67.30 on the parallel bars and 67.85 on the high bar.
In the all-around finals that were held in conjunction with the team competition on Friday, Jonny Tang (Fr., Malvern, Pa.) finished fourth overall with a score of 81.25. In a tight battle throughout, Tang held off William & Mary's Keaton Ackerman (81.15) and Junghans (80.85), who took fifth and sixth place, respectively.
Tang earned his 81.25 result courtesy of a 13.65 score in the floor exercise, a 13.35 on the pommel horse, a 13.25 on the rings, a 13.75 on the vault, a 12.95 on the parallel bars and a 13.10 on the high bar.
The individual event finals for championships will be held on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. in Macdonough Hall.
