April 9, 2015 NORMAN, Okla. -- The Navy gymnastics program had a strong showing on Thursday at the NCAA Qualifying Meet at the University of Oklahoma as the duo of Mitchell Larios (Jr., Frisco, Texas) and Jonny Tang (So., Malvern, Pa.) both posted scores that advanced them to the NCAA Championships.
Larios, on the vault, and Tang, in the all-around, earned their way into the event finals by being one of the top three individuals, not on one of the qualifying teams in their respective session. The three teams that advanced on Thursday from the first session at the Lloyd Noble Center were Stanford, California and Penn State, thereby forcing Larios and Tang to finish in the top three amongst individual gymnasts from Minnesota, Nebraska and Air Force.
Courtesy of a career-best tying mark of 15.2 on the vault, Larios assured himself a spot the championship with an overall standing of second out of 35 gymnasts. He finished just 0.1 points shy of Stanford's Sean Senters' top score of 15.3. Larios nearly qualified for a second event as he finished as the fourth individual on the floor exercise at 14.85. Joel Gagnon got the final transfer position with a score of 14.9.
Tang, an all-around performer, came through on Thursday with an 82.85 effort, which was good for fourth overall and first amongst individuals needing to qualify. The sophomore scored a 14.35 on the floor exercise, a 13.4 on the pommel horse, a 13.8 on the rings, a 14.05 on the vault, a 14.0 on the parallel bars and a 13.25 on the high bar. ÂÂ
Larios and Tang are the first set of Navy teammates to both qualify for the NCAA Championships since Dylan Parrott (FX, PB, HB) and Andrew Faulk (AA) advanced in 2011. Faulk in 2012 and Chris Junghans in 2013 were the only Navy qualifiers in their respective years.
Five other Midshipmen attempted to qualify for the championship on Thursday: Thomas Goodell (Sr., Hopkinton, Mass.), Joshua Steves (Sr., Houston, Texas), Eric Viscardi (Sr., Marietta, Ga.), Eric Morrison (Jr., Broomfield, Colo.) and Noah Beeman (Fr., Dayton, Ohio).
Steves had the highest finish amongst this group as he placed 14th overall and fifth amongst individuals on the rings with a score of 14.4.
Goodell concluded his collegiate career with routines on three apparatus at Oklahoma, the rings, parallel bars and high bar. His best score was a 14.1 on the rings as he scored a 13.3 on the parallel bar and a 12.35 on the high bar.
Viscardi rounded out the trio of senior gymnasts competing for the final time collegiately on Thursday as he registered a score of 13.05 on the rings.
Morrison tied for 18th place on the pommel horse with Minnesota's Danny DiBenedetto with a score of 13.9.
In his first NCAA Qualifying Meet, Beeman competed in two events and scored a 13.9 on the floor exercise and a 13.3 on the high bar.
Both Tang and Larios will be in action on Friday evening at 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT) as they will be competing in conjunction with the team finals. The all-around champion will be crowned at the end of the night, while the top-10 scorers in each discipline will qualify for the individual event finals on Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET. Live video and live results will be available throughout.
