COLUMBUS, Ohio – The No. 7 Navy gymnastics team fell on the road Saturday to the fifth-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes by a score of 408.9 to 397.2. In their first collegiate meet in three weeks, the Mids (10-3) started off well, but were unable to overcome a season-best score from the host Buckeyes (5-4). Navy outscored Ohio State on both the floor exercise and vault in the competition at OSU's Covelli Center.
Individually, a career-best 14.7 score on the vault by
Travis Keller (Jr., Centreville, Va.) led the Mids as he won the event over his teammate
Connor Van Loo (Fr., Freeland, Mich.) by 0.05 points. In addition to this pair of top-two performances on Saturday,
Josh Williams (So., Cypress, Texas) and
Frank Bradley (Sr., McLean, Va.) each placed second respectively on the rings and floor exercise.
As a team, Navy scored 68.6 points on the floor exercise, 63.35 on the pommel horse, 66.1 on the rings, 72.5 on the vault, 63.35 on the parallel bars and 63.0 on the high bar. This is the second meet in 2020 that the Mids have surpassed the 72.0-point plateau on the vault after notching a 72.8 on Jan. 18 at the Navy Open. Saturday marked the first five-up, five-count meet of 2020 for the Mids.
Navy's competition started off well as its floor exercise lineup turned in four of the top-six routines of the day. Bradley, the Mids' team captain, found himself in direct competition with the Buckeyes' Kazuki Hayashi for the top spot on the first event. Hayashi ended up finishing first at 14.4, while Bradley was 0.2 points back with a season-best 14.2. The duo of
Lucas Beltran (Sr., Corpus Christi, Texas) and Williams tied for third place with matching 14.1's. Van Loo made it four Mids in the top six as he netted a score of 13.8. As a team, Navy outscored Ohio State 68.6 to 68.4 on the floor exercise.
The Mids lost a bit of their momentum on the next apparatus, the pommel horse, as only two gymnasts finished in the top five. After OSU's Rihard Trams and Luke Smigliani tied for first at 13.8, Navy's
Dan Clark (So., Avon, Mass.) was right in contention with a 13.7 score, good for third place.
Ryan McVay (Jr., Roseville, Calif.) came in fifth with a 12.95.
Leading by 2.9 points through two turns, the Buckeyes added 1.7 points to their advantage on the rings with a 67.8 to 66.1 decision. Williams challenged Max Andryushchenko for the event victory, but was edged by just 0.05 points, 13.8 to 13.75.
Jake Carlson (Jr., Lakeville, Mass.) nearly found his way into the top five, but missed by 0.05 points, as well, as he garnered a score of 13.45 on Saturday.
Navy put a healthy dent in Ohio State's 4.6-point lead with a dominant showing on the vault as Midshipmen gymnasts occupied spots one, two, three and five. Keller led the vault lineup with his career-high 14.7 score. Van Loo and
David Toussaint (Jr., Warren, Ohio) followed in tight succession with respective efforts of 14.65 and 14.6. Bradley rounded out Navy's quartet in the top five with a 14.35. The Mids outscored the Buckeyes, 72.5 to 70.3 on the vault.
Unfortunately for the visitors from Annapolis, that 2.4-point deficit would be as close as they would come the rest of the competition as Ohio State earned significant four-plus point advantages on each of the parallel bars and high bar events. Toussaint led Navy on the parallel bars with team-best 13.45 score to finish fifth in the field. On the high bar,
Cash Buske (So., Madison, Wisc.) came in fourth overall with a 13.5-point performance.
Saturday's meet was the first time Navy had competed in Columbus since the 2016 NCAA Championships. The Mids' head coach
Kip Simons is in Ohio State's Athletic Hall of Fame after his standout career saw him win four Big 10 event championship titles, two All-American certificates, as well as the Nissen-Emery Award as the nation's top senior class gymnast.
Navy will continue second half road action next Saturday on the West Coast when the Cal Golden Bears host the Mids in Berkeley, California.
