WEST POINT, N.Y. – One night after kicking off its 2019 campaign with a second-place finish in the team portion of the West Point Open, individual members of the Navy gymnastics team took centerstage with action in the event finals at Christl Arena. With 10 gymnasts competing across the six apparatus, the Mids earned 11 podium results for placing in the top-six.
David Toussaint (So., Warren, Ohio) led Navy's individual effort with three podium finishes.
Saturday night began with the floor exercise. Navy teammates
Ben Provost (Jr., South Hadley, Mass.) and Toussaint tied for third place with matching 12.9-point efforts. Penn State's Sam Zakutney came away with the event title with a score of 14.55.
Toussaint made it two podium-finishes in two events as the sophomore came in second place on the pommel horse. His routine scored him 12.95 points, 0.3 behind the winner, Favian Valdez from Penn State. Toussaint's teammate
Ryan Orce (Jr., Gainesville, Fla.) joined him on the podium in fifth place after scoring 12.6 points.
Navy continued placing gymnasts on the podium as
Ryan McVay (So., Roseville, Calif.) kept the streak alive as the only Midshipmen in the event finals of the rings. The all-arounder earned a score of 13.4, that was good for fifth place. In a tight event, first through fifth was separated by just 0.95 points. Penn State's Isaac Hammett was the event winner at 14.35.
The Mids' most successful event on the basis of quantity was the vault as all three of its competing gymnasts placed in the top-six. Sophomore
Travis Keller (Centreville, Va.) led the trio of vaulters with a 14.0-point result that tied him for second place with Army's Cole Casanova. Penn State's Wyatt Tyndall edged Keller and Casanova for the event win by 0.05 points at 14.05. Toussaint completed his sweep of podium finishes as he placed fourth overall with a 13.95 score.
Frank Bradley (Jr., McLean, Va.) earned his way into the top-six with a score of 13.8 that tied him for sixth place with Army's Matthew Davis. Positions one through six were decided by a scant 0.25 points.
The only Navy gymnast in the event final for the parallel bars,
Lucas Beltran (Jr., Corpus Christi, Texas) turned in a score of 10.3 to place sixth overall.
Navy closed out its near-perfect night on the high bar with two more top-six results. Coming into the event finals with 10 gymnasts putting down 13 routines, the Mids earned podium-finishes number 10 and 11 courtesy of Orce and
Max Gerber (So., Dix Hills, N.Y.). Orce led the duo with a score of 12.6 that tied for fourth place with Army's Alex Saurez. Gerber was 0.2 points behind his teammate with a sixth-place effort of 12.4 points.
The Mids will continue early season action next weekend at home with the 2019 Navy Open. Macdonough Hall will play host to the four-team competition at 2 p.m. The field will consist of squads from William & Mary, Springfield, Temple, in addition to Navy.
