ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy gymnastics team will be faced with a stiff task, but have the opportunity to test itself versus the nation's best this Saturday afternoon when the Mids welcome the four-time defending NCAA Champions, the Oklahoma Sooners to Macdonough Hall for the first time ever in program history. Following a brief pre-meet ceremony to honor Navy's Class of 2019, the No. 10 Mids (17-3) will go head-to-head versus the No. 1 Sooners (13-0) beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday's competition is a rematch from last year's Navy-Oklahoma meet that was held in Norman on Feb. 24. In defeat, Navy netted its second-highest point output of the 2018 season with 401.3 points. Both teams are currently in line to qualify for and meet up at the NCAA Championship once again as Navy has gone to the national competition in each of the past three seasons.

Oklahoma comes into Saturday's showdown with wins or first-place finishes in every meet in which that have competed in since placing second at the 2014 NCAA Championship Team Finals. During that span they have accumulated 109 victories. The Sooners are led by a pair of U.S. Senior Men's National Team members, Yul Moldauer and Genki Suzuki. Oklahoma's head coach Mark Williams has been on staff for the United States at the Olympic level in five of the last six Summer Games, including the 2016 Rio Games when he was the head coach of the American squad.

Navy-Oklahoma 2018 (Feb. 24, 2018)
The Sooners took the team victory over the Mids in the meet at McCasland Field House with a 429.55-401.3 final. Individually, the Mids were led by strong top-five results from then-freshmen Ryan McVay and Travis Keller. McVay left his mark with a fourth place score of 13.95 on the high bar and fifth place effort on the rings at 13.5. Keller broke into the top five on the vault with a 14.45-point score.

Navy was led by season-best performances by its pommel horse and high bar lineups. In the team's first "five-up, five-count" meet of 2018, the Mids' pommel horse squad posted a score of 67.8 that was 1.3 points better than its previous high. Likewise, Navy's high bar corps completed their five routines with a total of 68.25. Before Saturday, a 67.35 was the best score for the Mids on the apparatus.

In addition to the pommel horse and high bar, Navy registered a score of 67.8 on the floor exercise, 65.9 on the rings, 70.25 on the vault and 64.8 on the parallel bars.

Last Time Out
Navy kicked off its Spring Break with a second-place result at the five-team Arizona State Invitational on Saturday night. Competing against No. 4 Penn State, No 13 Air Force, No. 14 Arizona State and No. 21 NorCal United, the No. 9 Midshipmen used strong team performances on the floor exercise and vault disciplines on their way to 390.2 points, second behind the Nittany Lions. Penn State won the event at the Sun Devil Fitness Complex with a total of 402.1 points. 
 
Following Navy in the standings were Arizona State (384.65), Air Force (377.25) and the NorCal United Club team (282.00).
 
Lucas Beltran, Ryan Orce and Cash Buske led the Mids' effort on Saturday night as all three gymnasts recorded top-three individual results versus a field of 25-plus gymnasts in each event. Beltran stood out on the vault with 14.70 points and a dominant win by 0.15 points. The junior's day also included a runner-up result on the floor exercise at 13.95. Orce was the top-scoring Mid on the pommel horse with a second-place 13.75, in addition to another runner-up score on the parallel bars with a 13.40. Buske rounded out the trio of top performers as the plebe placed third on the high bar at 13.65.
 
As a team, Navy scored 67.3 points on the floor exercise, 62.75 on the pommel horse, 63.25 on the rings, 69.8 on the vault, 61.95 on the parallel bars and 65.15 on the high bar. 

For his efforts, Beltran was selected as the ECAC Specialist of the Week for the second straight week.

Comparing the Squads

	Navy	Oklahoma
A-A	400.550	415.267
FX	67.750	70.867
PH	66.267	66.267
R	66.550	69.683
V	70.017	72.317
PB	65.133	69.033
HB	66.767	68.383

Navy's Class of 2019
The Mids will honor the careers of team captain Christian Correale, Mitchell Fornek and Mark Pickar on Saturday afternoon. Together the trio have helped lead Navy to NCAA Championship appearances in each of their first for fours. 

Mids in the Top-25
The following nine gymnasts are ranked in the top-25 nationally as of March 11 ...
David Toussaint
    #5 - Pommel Horse, 14.117 NQA (National Qualifying Average - 4 Scores)
Ryan Orce
    #7 - Pommel Horse, 13.950 NQA
Lucas Beltran
    #13 - Vault, 14.467 NQA
Cash Buske
    #15 - High Bar, 13.633 NQA
Ben Provost
    #17 - High Bar, 13.583 NQA
Max Gerber
    #22 - High Bar, 13.467 NQA
Josh Williams
    #22 - Rings, 13.733 NQA