Jan. 24, 2015 Meet Results
ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Before a standing room only crowd at Macdonough Hall on Saturday afternoon, the Navy men's gymnastics team secured the team title at the 2015 Navy Open. Battling a barrage of injuries to their regular starting lineup, the Mids gutted out the victory with high quality performances from across their roster. Navy finished in first place with a score of 412.45, two points ahead of Springfield College. Temple University and William & Mary rounded out the teams at the competition with scores of 407.45 and 406.25, respectively.
"This was a pleasant surprise," remarked head coach Dr. Sho Fukushima after the meet. "We were down multiple gymnasts, who would normally play a large role in our success, but the team rallied together and got the job done."
The quartet of Jonny Tang (So., Malvern, Pa.), Mitchell Larios (Jr., Frisco, Texas), Eric Morrison (Jr., Broomfield, Colo.) and Eric Viscardi (Sr., Marietta, Ga.) led the way for Navy on Saturday. Tang, Larios and Morrison secured outright event wins, while Viscardi earn four top-seven finishes.
As a team, the Mids recorded a score of 71.6 in the floor exercise, 67.0 on the pommel horse, 67.0 on the rings, 71.4 on the vault, 66.65 on the parallel bars and a 68.8 on the high bar. Navy's performance in the floor exercise was the highest in program history since the advent of the five-counter scoring in 2013.
Three top-five finishes in the floor exercise helped give Navy an outstanding start to the meet. Tang led the way with a career-high 14.9 effort that ranked him second overall in the competition. The sophomore was closely followed by Viscardi and Larios, who recorded scores of 14.8 and 14.5, respectively. Viscardi's result was also a new career-high.
Navy secured its first event win during the next rotation when Morrison earned a 0.25-point victory in pommel horse action with a final score of 14.7. This mark surpassed Morrison's previous career-high of 14.5.
In the rings portion of the meet, the senior duo of Viscardi and Thomas Goodell (Sr., Hopkinton, Mass.) led the charge with two top-six results. Viscardi was nudged out of first place by Temple's Jon Rydzefski, who won the event by the slimmest of margins, 13.95 to 13.90. Goodell wasn't far behind his teammate in sixth place with a score of 13.6.
In the fourth rotation, Navy flexed its muscle with five of its gymnasts securing top-nine positions. Larios was the top vaulter in Macdonough Hall on Saturday afternoon with a 14.9 performance. He was followed in quick succession by Viscardi in third place at 14.5, Tang in fifth at 14.15 and David Frick (Jr., St. Johns, Fla.) in seventh at 14.0. Reigning ECAC Rookie of the Week, Noah Beeman (Fr., Dayton, Ohio) rounded out the group of top-scoring Mids with a score of 13.85, good for ninth overall.
Navy placed three gymnasts in the top-10 in each of the final two events, the parallel bars and high bar to cement its victory. In the parallel bars, Larios was the highest finishing Mid with a second-place score of 14.15. Viscardi ranked seventh overall at 13.6, while Connor Gonzales (Jr., Glen Ellyn, Ill.) finished 10th with a 13.5 result. Viscardi's mark shattered his previous best (12.6) on the parallel bars by exactly one point. Of note, this was Gonzales' first collegiate score on the apparatus.
In the high bar, Tang, Beeman and Andrew Potts (Jr., Ellicott City, Md.) all recorded scores within 0.15 points of each other. Tang finished in fourth place with a score of 14.15 before Beeman and Potts tied for fifth with identical scores of 14.0.
After the meet was concluded, Tang finished atop the leaderboard in the all-around competition with a score of 82.95. In addition to his top-10 results in the floor exercise, the vault and high bar, he also scored 13.65 points on the pommel horse, 13.3 on the rings and 12.8 on the parallel bars.
"Our team showed a ton of heart and soul this afternoon," said assistant coach Craig Holt. "We had a lot of guys rise up to answer the call and get us this win. We were asking a lot of our available personal today and they came through. There are things that we have to improve on going forward, but this is a great result."
This team win marked the first for the Mids in their annual home opening meet since 2009.
Navy will be in action at home for the final time in 2015 next Sunday, Feb. 1 versus William & Mary. The action between the Mids and Tribe is set to begin at 3 p.m. at Macdonough Hall.
