April 10, 2014
ANN ARBOR, Mich. - The Navy gymnastics team saw its 2014 season end on Thursday with a program-record eight athletes competing at the NCAA Qualifying Meet at the University of Michigan's Crisler Arena. Led by Chris Junghans' seventh place finish in the all-around event, three other Midshipmen posted top-20 scores versus a strong field of competition in meet's first session.
Competing in his third NCAA Qualifying Meet, Junghans (Sr., Dunkirk, Md.) recorded a 14.0 on the floor, a 13.0 on the pommel horse, 13.65 on the rings, 14.0 on the vault, 14.1 on the parallel bars and 13.35 on the high bar for a total of 82.1 points. The senior finished seventh amongst his fellow all-around competitors. Cal's Donothan Bailey (86.25) and Kyle Zemeir (85.5) and Iowa's Jack Boyle (84.45) earned the three qualifying spots for Friday's all-around finals.
Navy had seven other gymnasts in action on Thursday and while several high scores were posted the Midshipmen were shut out in their quest to attain spots in Saturday's event finals.
Though only appearing in one event, the rings, Joshua Steves (Jr., Houston, Texas) received Navy's highest score on the afternoon with a 14.45. His effort tied him for 15th-best on the apparatus and just 0.35 points away from grabbing the final at-large bid in the event finals for the rings.
Sophomore Mitchell Larios (Frisco, Texas) took part in a team-high three individual events on Thursday. His top result was a 20th-place finish in the floor exercise with a 14.2 score, that tied his second-best result all season. Larios rounded out his first NCAA Qualifying Meet with a 24th-place result (14.2) on the vault and a 25th-place finish on the parallel bars (13.8).
Two other Mids saw action in multi-events as Andrew Potts (So., Ellicott City, Md.) and Jonny Tang (Fr., Malvern, Pa.) each competed twice. Potts' highlight performance came on the high bar were he finished in a tie for 20th with a 13.6 routine. On the pommel horse, he finished 32nd with a 13.0 score. Appearing in his first career qualifier, Tang placed 34th on both the floor (12.9) and high bar (12.55).
Eric Morrison (So., Broomfield, Colo.) joined Junghans and Potts in pommel horse action and led the trio of Midshipmen with a score of 13.7 that tied him for 21st overall.
Juniors Thomas Goodell (Hopkinton, Mass.) and Eric Viscardi (Marietta, Ga.) rounded out the group of Navy gymnasts competing at Michigan on Thursday with routines on the rings and floor, respectively. Goodell finished 30th on the rings (13.6), while Viscardi took 36th on the floor exercise (12.1).
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 finals on Saturday.
Oklahoma was the top finishing team in the session as they posted a 440.0 score. Stanford (433.55) and Illinois (432.85) were the final two programs to advance to Friday's team finals. William & Mary, the automatic qualifier from the ECAC, finished sixth in the session with a score of 415.35.
