WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The Navy gymnastics team dropped the back-end of its home-and-home series with William & Mary by a score of 408.8 to 406.6 on Sunday afternoon. In the first meet of the season for the No. 12 Mids (2-1) with the five-up, five-count scoring system, a 7.05-point swing in favor of the No. 14 Tribe (1-3) in the pommel horse rotation set the visitors in a deficit that they would not be able to overcome in action at Kaplan Arena.

"The change to five-up, five-count got the better of us today," remarked head coach Kip Simons. "You have to be perfect in this system and unfortunately today we were not. We continue to come up short on pommel horse, though I was happy with the vault team, who performed very well today. We have been making some increases to the difficulty of our routines which we'll need to perfect by the post season. We look to bounce back next weekend, as well as get Jonny Tang [did not compete/rest] back in the lineup."

Seniors Mitchell Larios (Frisco, Texas) and Eric Poletti (Lancaster, Pa.) highlighted the Mids' individual performances on Sunday with event wins in the floor exercise and vault for Larios and on the rings Poletti.

As a team, the Mids recorded a score of 69.2 in the floor exercise, 63.3 on the pommel horse, 68.7 on the rings, 72.35 on the vault, 66.55 on the parallel bars and a 66.5 on the high bar. Navy's score on the vault was its fifth in six meets of 72.0 or better.

Navy's 72.35 vault score was led by a one-two finish courtesy of Larios and Andy Jones (So., Reading, Mass.), who recorded marks of 15.0 and 14.95. David Frick (Sr., St. Johns, Fla.) gave the Mids three of the top-four finishers as he completed his vault with a 14.35 score. Wyatt LaPointe (Jr., Mechanicsburg, Pa.) and Noah Beeman (So., Dayton, Ohio) rounded out Navy's high-scoring lineup with respective efforts of 14.05 and 14.0. All five Midshipmen gymnasts placed amongst the top-eight.

The team's 1.6-point advantage on the vault was backed up by a 0.95-point positive margin on the rings as Navy tried to come back in the middle two rotations of the meet. A first-place result of 14.8 by Poletti led the Mids' five-man lineup. Christian Correale (Fr., Harrisburg, Pa.) and LaPointe gave Navy a clean sweep of the top-three spots in the rankings. Correale scored a 14.1, while LaPointe was awarded a 14.0.

The Mids were in come back mode following the second rotation when they saw a solid result from the floor exercise lineup go away with a subpar pommel horse showing. Larios led the floor squad with a meet-best 14.3 score. Jones and Jacob Moses (Sr., Windsor, Colo.) backed up their teammate with the second and fourth-best overall scores at 14.1 and 14.0. In the pommel horse rotation, a 14.35 score from Eric Morrison (Sr., Broomfield, Colo.) placed him third overall. He was the lone Mid to finish in the top-six.

Down the stretch, the meet score stayed at two to four-point margin in favor of the Tribe. Navy placed three gymnasts in the top-five on the parallel bars and four on the high bar, but high-scoring first-place results by William & Mary helped the host squad hold on for the conference victory.

Connor Westrick (Sr., Waterford, Wis.) and Larios led the Mids' parallel bar lineup with identical second-place scores of 13.55. Connor Gonzales (Sr., Glen Ellyn, Ill.) gave Navy its third top-five result with a 13.4 effort, good for fifth overall.

On the high bar, a first-place result by William & Mary's Aria Sabbagh was followed up by a sweep of positions, two through five by Poletti, Jones, Beeman and Frick. Poletti finished second with a 13.7, while Jones came through with a 13.55. Beeman and Frick aided the Mids' effort with scores of 13.35 and 13.1, respectively.

In the all-around competition, Beeman defeated the Tribe's David Allen by 0.6 points at 77.9 to 77.3.

Navy will complete its regular season schedule next Sunday, March 13 with a road meet at Springfield College. Beginning at 1 p.m., the competition will give the Mids a preview of Blake Arena, home of the 2016 USAG Championships. The Pride will host the two-day championship on the weekend of March 25 and 26.