Feb. 6, 2016 ANNAPOLIS, Md. - In a matchup that promised tight competition and excitement throughout, the 12th-ranked Navy Midshipmen earned a hard-fought, 419.3-413.75 victory over No. 13 Army West Point in the annual Star Meet for gymnastics on Saturday afternoon at Macdonough Hall. Coming into the day separated by 0.792 points in the standings for season scoring average, the Mids started strong during the first two events and took the lead for good after a 5.2-point swing during the rings and vault rotations. During those two turns, Navy gymnasts swept the top five scoring positions over Army West Point's top point-earner.
Individually, Mitchell Larios (Sr., Frisco, Texas) led the way with three event wins as he placed first in the floor exercise, vault and parallel bars, with scores of 14.6, 14.6 and 14.35, respectively. Connor Gonzales (Sr., Glen Ellyn, Ill.) made it four event wins for Navy as the he won the rings with a score of 14.5. Jonny Tang (Jr., Malvern, Pa.) was strong as well on Saturday with a career-high 84.4 score in the all-around competition. The junior also tied Larios for the top-spot on the vault at 14.6.
"This was a great team win for the program and the Naval Academy," remarked an excited Kip Simons, Navy's head coach. "We had some mistakes, but we were able to quickly move on and focus on the next routine. We never let up. I told the guys to trust their training and they were champions today. With a tremendous showing of alumni, student body and fan support, that was exactly what we needed to put us over the top. The team will remember this day for the rest of their lives."
With the season averages predicting a split of the six events, three and three, the Mids knew that they would need to stay close and potentially steal an event in the first two rotations. The host squad came out in the floor exercise and used the first-place performance by Larios to post a five-man score of 69.25 that was within 0.4-points of its season average. Tang and Noah Beeman (So., Dayton, Ohio) added strong performances of their own at 13.9 and 13.8. After Army West Point finished its pommel horse rotation, the team's switched apparatus and the Mids took to the pommel horse and recorded a season-high 68.3 score, nearly two points above their season average. Eric Morrison (Sr., Broomfield, Colo.) was the frontrunner for Navy as he posted the second-best score on the day with a 14.1. Beeman and Connor Westrick (Sr., Waterford, Wis.) helped the Mids' overall event performance with identical scores of 13.7 each. After two full rotations the score was Army West Point, 137.65 and Navy, 137.55.
With the lead well within their reach, the Mids took over with dominate rotations of rings and vault action. Navy posted back-to-back season-high scores with a 70.65 on the rings and a 72.5 on the vault. The team's vault performance set a new program record.
The rings were up first for Navy and Gonzales led a quartet of Mids that turned in 14.0 or better routines. The senior was backed up in the standings by Eric Poletti (Sr., Lancaster, Pa.), who posted a 14.3 and the duo of Wyatt LaPointe (Mechanicsburg, Pa.) and Christian Correale (Fr., Harrisburg, Pa.), who each came in with 14.0 scores. Tang completed Navy's top-five sweep with the fifth-best performance on the rings at 13.85.
The sweeping of the top-five scores was repeated on the vault as well, as Larios and Tang led the charge with identical 14.6 scores. After missing last week's Navy Open due to an injury, sophomore Andy Jones (Reading, Mass.) showed that he was healed up and ready to go as he treated the raucous crowd to a 14.55 score. Zac Ceroli (Sr., Angier, N.C.) and David Frick (Sr., St. Johns, Fla.) finished the sweep with results of 14.4 and 14.35, respectively.
The two standout middle rotations gave Navy a 280.7 to 275.6 lead going into the parallel bars and high bar. The Mids responded on the parallel bars with a 69.6 score and four of the top-six individual finishers. Larios' 14.35 was first overall before Westrick and Tang went back-to-back with scores of 14.2 and 14.05 to place third and fourth, respectively. Correale rounded out Navy's top finishers with a 13.7-point effort that was sixth-best.
After the Black Knights posted a 71.6 on the high bar and tightened the competition to 3.1 points at 350.3 to 347.2 it was up to the Mids to lock down the victory on the high bar. With the 2016 Star hanging in the balance, Navy's six-man high bar team came out and put down a 69.0 score that fell right in line with its season average of 68.6. Tang was the top-scorer for the Mids with a 14.5-point result. Beeman and Frick followed up Tang's second-place performance with scores of 14.2 and 14.1, respectively. A 66.5-point outcome for the Black Knights on the parallel bars sealed the 419.3-413.75 victory much to the joy of the standing room only crowd at Macdonough Hall.
The Mids will be back in action next Saturday at the All-Academy Championships versus Air Force and Army West Point. The competition in Atlanta, Ga. will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 13.
