WEST POINT, N.Y. – The 2020 season got underway for the No. 10 Navy gymnastics team at the West Point Open on Friday night. At the completion of the six-team event at Army's Christl Arena, the Mids placed third overall with 395.45 points, just 0.4 points shy of No. 13 Arizona State for runner-up honors. No. 7 Penn State finished atop the standings with 403.40 points at the event. No. 12 Army, No. 16 Springfield and No. 19 Temple rounded out the field with scores of 388.55, 376.90 and 356.25, respectively.
Navy's effort on Friday was led by an event-best score from its floor exercise lineup and 15 top-10 individual results. Overall, nine Midshipmen will advance to Saturday night's event finals.
David Toussaint (Jr., Warren, Ohio) and
Ryan Orce (Sr., Gainesville, Fla.) each qualified for two event finals. Additionally,
Cian McConnell (Sr., Houston, Texas) was a standout for the Mids at the meet with a career-best score of 13.9 to place third in the floor exercise.
Toussaint and McConnell spearheaded Navy's team floor exercise performance as they finished back-to-back with scores of 13.95 and 13.9, respectively. Toussaint was edged for the top spot by Army's Mathew Davis by just 0.1 points. In his collegiate debut
Connor Van Loo (Fr., Freeland, Mich.) finished fourth in the event with a 13.85 score.
Josh Williams (So., Cypress, Texas) kept the run of Navy gymnasts going as he posted a 13.8 to rank fifth overall.
Ben Provost (Sr., South Hadley, Mass.) made it five Mids in the top-eight with a score of 13.55.
Navy's ensuing event, the pommel horse saw solid production from the Mids' starting linup with three gymnasts in the top-nine. Toussaint took the lead once again as he turned in a score of 13.65 that tied for fifth overall.
Jake Carlson (Jr., Lakeville, Mass.) was 0.05 points back in seventh at 13.6. The third-highest scorer Mid was Orce in ninth place with a 13.35.
Three Midshipmen also recorded top-10 results on the high bar with
Cash Buske (So., Madison, Wisc.) posting a score of 13.3, that tied Penn State's Brennan Pantazis for fourth place. Orce was a high-scoring producer for Navy on this apparatus as well with an eighth-place score of 13.0.
Dhiren Lutchman (So., Beltsville, Md.) rounded out the top-10 with a 12.9 effort.
Lutchman was also part of the Mids' starting rings lineup on Friday night and repaid head coach Kip Simon's faith with a career-best 13.55 score. He tied for seventh with Penn State's Eric Lung. Lutchman's fellow sophomore
Nehemiah Baker (Oak Ridge, N.C.) graded out 0.1 points better with a 13.65 that was good for a fifth-place tie with Kiernan Reagan from Army.
Navy's parallel bars and vaulting squads each had one gymnast finish in the top-10. In his first collegiate parallel bars routine, Toussaint was awarded a 12.6 score that was tied for ninth overall with Brian Knott, who was competing with the Chelsea Piers Club.
Max Gerber (Jr., Dix Hills, N.Y.) just missed making the top-10 as he netted a score of 12.55 to tie for 11th-place.
Team captain
Frank Bradley (Sr., McLean, Va.) will represent the blue and gold in Saturday night's event finals on the vault after posting a 14.25 score that set him in a five-way tie for eighth place.
In the all-around competition,
Ryan McVay (Jr., Roseville, Calif.) ranked sixth overall with a six-event score of 75.3. He scored 12.4 points on the floor exercise, 12.75 on the pommel horse, 12.65 on the rings, 13.8 on the vault, 11.0 on the parallel bars and 12.7 on the high bar.
As a team, Navy scored 68.1 points on the floor exercise, 65.7 on the pommel horse, 66.5 on the rings, 70.25 on the vault, 60.35 on the parallel bars and 64.55 on the high bar.
"We started the season tonight with a lot of new routines," remarked head coach
Kip Simons. "Our focus has been on increasing the difficulty of our routines in the preseason. There are always challenges early in the season and we need to get back to work on Monday. The depth and fight I saw tonight were really good signs for things to come."
Navy will have representation in all six of the event finals on Saturday with Van Loo and McConnell in the floor exercise field, Orce, Carlson and Toussaint in the eight-man pommel horse field, and Baker and Lutchman in the finals of the rings. Bradley and Toussaint will compete in each of the vault and parallel bars finals, respectively. The night will close with two Mids, Buske and Orce, on the high bar. The action on Saturday night kicks off at 7 p.m.
