April 2, 2016 WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - With the pressure of an automatic bid into the NCAA Championships hanging in the balance the Navy gymnastics team turned in one of its best performances of the year and earned a first-place result at the ECAC Championships on Saturday. Taking on a six-team field of regional opposition at William & Mary, the Mids totaled 423.4 points to tie for first place with Army West Point. The ECAC title was the first for Navy since 1989. On the basis of a tie-breaker, the Mids won the outright bid over the Black Knights to secure the automatic bid to the national championship in Columbus, Ohio later this April.
Navy and Army West Point tied for the ECAC team title with identical scores of 423.4. William & Mary, the host school finished third at 416.85, while Springfield was fourth with 406.3 points. Temple and Illinois-Chicago rounded out the field with scores of 403.45 and 387.8, respectively.
The tie-breaker to decide the automatic qualifier was the higher score of Army West Point and Navy at the neutral-site All-Academy Championship. Back in February, the Mids scored a school-record 424.1 points versus a 422.85 total for the Black Knights.
"Our guys were champions today," remarked head coach Kip Simons. "We've instilled ownership since day one and they rose to the occasion. It was a total team effort this afternoon."
As a team, the Mids recorded a score of 71.6 in the floor exercise, 69.65 on the pommel horse, 71.7 on the rings, 71.8 on the vault, 68.2 on the parallel bars and a 70.45 on the high bar. This was the third meet this season with four rotationals scores of 70.0-plus.
Standout performances by Mitchell Larios (Sr., Frisco, Texas), Eric Poletti (Sr., Lancaster, Pa.), Eric Morrison (Sr., Broomfield, Colo.) and Jonny Tang (Jr., Malvern, Pa.) led Navy on Saturday. Both Larios and Poletti finished atop the standings in an event, as Larios posted the highest parallel bar score at 14.65, while Poletti turned in a 15.05 on the rings. Morrison and Tang backed up their teammates with second-place efforts on the pommel horse and high bar, respectively. In the all-around competition, Tang finished in second with a score of 84.85.
The championship came down to the vault rotation for the Mids and the rings for the Black Knights. Down 2.65 points after five rotations, the Mids turned in a 71.8 score on the strength of 14.8 and 14.7 individual scores by Larios and Andy Jones (So., Reading, Mass.). Tang and David Frick (Sr., St. Johns, Fla.) helped Navy's cause with respective score of 14.2 and 14.1. Army West Point finished its turn on the rings with a 69.15 score to leave the meet complete in a dead heat.
Surprisingly, the vault was the only event on Saturday in which the Mids failed to qualify three gymnasts (the maximum) for Sunday's individual event finals.
Navy's most successful event was the rings as all five of its competitors finished amongst the top-six. Poletti came in first overall with a 15.05 score to first 0.45 points ahead of William & Mary's Nick Van Dyke. In succession, Connor Gonzales (Sr., Glen Ellyn, Ill.) and Christian Correale (Fr., Harrisburg, Pa.) finished tied for third at 14.2 before Tang and Wyatt LaPointe (Jr., Mechanicsburg, Pa.) rounded out the top-ranking quintet with respective scores of 14.15 and 14.1.
Larios finished atop the rankings on the parallel bars as he recorded a 14.65 score. Tang turned in the fourth-best score with a 14.1. Correale was the third qualifier for Sunday's competition with a 13.7 mark to rank ninth overall.
The Mids were closely packed together on the pommel horse with Morrision leading a trio of event qualifiers. The senior captain came in just 0.15 points behind William & Mary's Jacopo Gliozzi with a 14.7 to 14.55 decision. Michael Dorsey (Sr., Hollywood, Fla.) and Noah Beeman (So., Dayton, Ohio) finished sixth and seventh overall with a scores of 14.1 and 14.0, respectively.
Larios earned his third top-three result in the floor exercise when he finished runner-up to Army West Point's Leo Genders with a 14.9 score. Tang and Beeman followed up Larios' high-scoring performance with routines of 14.6 and 14.3, respectively. Jones gave Navy a fourth 14.0-plus score as he turned in a 14.1 on the floor exercise.
On the high bar, Tang, Beeman and Poletti qualified for Sunday's action with a trio of scores in the 14.0's. Tang led Navy with a 14.6 score to rank second. Beeman's 14.1 and Poletti's 14.05 placed the respective gymnasts, eighth and 10th overall.
In the all-around competition, Tang added onto his floor, rings, vault, parallel bar and high bar routines with a 13.2 on the pommel horse for a cumulative mark of 84.85. He finished 2.1 points shy of Army West Point's Jesse Glenn (86.95) in the final standings.
"To send our seniors off with our first conference title in 27 years means the world to me," exclaimed Simons. "We live to see another day. After tomorrow its off to Columbus for the NCAA Championships!"
Navy wraps up its stay at the ECAC Championships on Sunday with eight gymnasts in competition for individual titles. The championship action begins at 1 p.m.
