Feb. 16, 2017 Session 1 Results
LAS VEGAS - The Navy gymnastics team was recognized on a national platform on Thursday as senior Jonny Tang (Malvern, Pa.) competed at the prestigious USA Gymnastics Winter Cup Challenge. The annual event invites the best gymnasts in the United States to compete for one of 15 spots on the U.S. National Team for its upcoming season of competition. In total, 82 gymnasts from the youth, club, collegiate and Olympic ranks were invited to Las Vegas for the event. Competing in session one versus 38 all-around gymnasts, Tang placed fifth overall with 77.55 points.
"I thought things went well today," remarked Tang after competing. "The environment was a lot different in the sense that I didn't have my teammates behind me getting loud and cheering me on. That took some getting used to.
"It was a great privilege to represent the Naval Academy and my teammates back home at such a high level competition like this."
Starting on the rings, Tang's day began with a 13.0-point result that eventually ranked 11th overall. Moving on in the rotation, the senior recorded a 13.8 on the vault that was 10th best amongst the field. Tang really hit his stride performance-wise over the next three turns, the parallel bars, high bar and floor exercise.
Coming off back-to-back strong p-bar routines for Navy in regular season collegiate action over the past two weeks, Tang notched the session's sixth highest score at 13.35. His standing continued improving as his high bar performance resulted in a 12.85 that tied for third overall.
The senior's streak of top-10 performances kept going with the floor exercise as he posted a 13.25 to rank seventh. On his final apparatus, the pommel horse, Tang turned in an 11.3 that was 24th overall.
At the end of the session, Tang was credited with 77.55 points to finish fifth overall in the all-around competition. The separation between Tang and the session's top finisher, Brandon Briones was just 3.2 points. The top-five consisted of Briones, Oklahoma's Hunter Justus (80.7), Illinois' Johnny Jacobson (78.4), Nebraska's Chris Stephenson (78.3) and Tang.
Amongst the entire field of collegiate gymnasts, Tang outpointed athletes from Oklahoma, Minnesota, Penn State, Washington, Iowa, Stanford, Nebraska, Army and Michigan.
"This was a big day for Jonny and the entire program," exclaimed Navy head coach Kip Simons. "It's a true honor to be selected to compete at this national event. Jonny did a great job of bringing exposure to the Academy today. He was a true champion battling against the top 85 guys in the country! I'm very proud of his effort today."
The second session of the Winter Cup Challenge is slated to begin at 9:30 pm ET. At the completion of the session, the scores will be combined with the top-24 all-around gymnasts moving onto the finals on Saturday night. Session number two is slated to have four members of the 2016 Olympic Team and two more U.S. National Team alternates competing in the field.
"I'm really looking forward to seeing how the second session tonight goes to see if I'll have the opportunity to compete again on Saturday," remarked Tang. "This has been a great experience."
