ANNAPOLIS, Md. - After checking off the boxes of winning the Star Meet, All-Academy Championship, USAG Collegiate Championship and ECAC Championship, the Navy men's gymnastics has one final goal in mind, breaking through with a top-10 result at the 2019 NCAA Championship. The team will have a chance starting Friday afternoon at the University of Illinois to reach that final landmark. Seeded tenth in the 12-team national field, the Mids will be taking to the floor at the State Farm Center as part of Session 1 of the Qualifying Meet alongside No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 Michigan, No. 6 Minnesota, No. 7 Nebraska and No. 11 California beginning at 2 p.m. ET (1 p.m.-local). This is the fourth straight year that Navy will be participating in the national championship event. The top-three finishing teams from each of the two qualifying sessions (7 p.m. ET is the other) and select individuals will advance to compete in Saturday's championship finals at 7 p.m.

The University of Illinois will be providing live stats throughout the two-day event. The NCAA will host live video through its championship season video portal on Friday before Saturday's championship and event finals move to television and the Big Ten Network.

The top-three all-around competitors not on one of the top-three qualifying teams from the session, plus the top-three individuals on each event not already qualified on a team or as an all-around competitor, will advance from Friday's qualifying round to Saturday's finals. 

Last Year at the NCAA Championships
One of six teams in the first qualifying session on Friday, April 20, 2018 at the UIC Pavilion, the Mids posted a score of 390.921 to finish fifth. Of the 12 combined teams at the meet, Navy placed 11th overall. The team's effort was spearheaded by four members, who advanced to compete in the NCAA Championship Finals on Saturday. Lucas Beltran and Frank Bradley advanced to the finals on the vault, while Trevor North moved on for the parallel bars and David Toussaint progressed on the pommel horse.

The Midshipmen finished with 390.921 points behind Stanford (407.390), Minnesota (404.758), Nebraska (402.690), and Michigan (400.590). Air Force was sixth in the session with 385.688 points.

On the pommel horse, Toussaint finished second in the qualifying session with a combined score of 13.600, being edged by Minnesota's Vitali Kan who posted a score of 13.733. On the vault, Bradley tied for fifth with Alex Magsam of Nebraska with a score of 14.366. 

As a team, Navy posted a 66.264 on the floor exercise, a 62.966 on the pommel horse, a 64.831 on the rings, a 69.697 on the vault, a 64.765 on the parallel bars and a 62.398 on the high bar.

In the championship finals on April 21, North led the way as he recorded a score of 13.533 on the parallel bars, that tied for 24th place overall amongst a field of 43 gymnasts.

Last Time Out: ECAC Championships
Navy continued completing tasks on its 2019 checklist of success as the Mids cruised to a 10.5-point victory at the ECAC Championship on Saturday, April 6. Coming in as the defending champions of the meet, the Mids used standout turns on the pommel horse, parallel bars and high bar to distance itself from the five-team field. After the final touch at Springfield's Blake Arena, Navy was victorious with 401.15 points.

Individually, Navy was led by four individual title winners and 15 All-ECAC performances on the day. Lucas Beltran, Ben Provost, David Toussaint and Josh Williams all placed first in individual events at the contest as Beltran was the vault champ, Provost the high bar champ, Toussaint the pommel horse champ and Williams the tri-champ on the rings.

As a team, Navy posted a 68.9 on the floor exercise, a 68.15 on the pommel horse, a 65.55 on the rings, a 69.0 on the vault, a 64.45 on the parallel bars and a 65.1 on the high bar.

Team Comparisons
Here is a breakdown of the six teams in session one …

	Stanford	Michigan	Minnesota	Nebraska	Navy	California
Ranking	2	3	6	7	10	11
Nat'l Q. Average	418.025	410.863	406.525	404.638	400.738	398.788
Team-High Score	419.350	413.900	410.950	408.700	408.500	405.500

Who to Watch
Nine highly-ranked Navy gymnasts will look to lead the squad this weekend. Following action at the ECAC Championship, Lucas Beltran ranks top-30 nationally in a pair of events (FX, VT). Eight other Mids break into the top-30 of the individual standings: Ryan McVay (AA), Frank Bradley (FX), David Toussaint (PH), Ryan Orce (PH), Dan Clark (PH), Josh Williams (R), Cash Buske (HB) and Ben Provost (HB)

Individual Rankings (with National Qualifying Average) ...
All-Around: McVay - 16th (76.375)
Floor Exercise: Beltran - 22nd (14.063) // Bradley - 28th (13.950)
Pommel Horse: Toussaint - 5th (14.150) // Orce - 10th (13.975) // Clark - 25th (13.438)
Rings: Williams - 26th (13.763)
Vault: Beltran - 7th (14.600)
High Bar: Buske - 17th (13.625) // Provost - 19th (13.600)