SAN ANTONIO – The Navy gymnastics team continued its dominant run of early season execution as the No. 6 Mids rolled to a 13.6-point victory over the field of service academy rivals, No. 14 Army and No. 16 Air Force at the 2020 All-Academy Championship on Saturday at the Mission Concepcion Sports Complex. One year after earning the All-Academy title for the first time since 2009, the Mids left no doubt that the trophy would be returning to Annapolis as they turned in a score of 407.7 to surpass both the Black Knights' 394.1 and the Falcons' 387.5.
 
As a team, Navy scored 69.85 points on the floor exercise, 64.8 on the pommel horse, 69.95 on the rings, 70.85 on the vault, 65.6 on the parallel bars and 66.65 on the high bar. The Mids placed first in four rotations; the floor, rings, parallel bars and high bar.
 
Individually, Josh Williams (Cypress, Texas) led the Mids as the sophomore finished first in both the floor exercise and rings competitions. He was joined atop the leaderboard by Lucas Beltran (Sr., Corpus Christi, Texas), the winner of the vault event, and Ben Provost (Sr., South Hadley, Mass.) the top-scorer on the high bar.
 
"Today was another well-fought battle," remarked head coach Kip Simons. "We weren't perfect and struggled in a few spots, but we kept fighting until the end. After three successful weekends at home this victory on the road was special."
 
The Mids' day started out fast as their first event was the rings. Navy immediately asserted its dominance with its top-five scorers occupying positions one, two, four, five and seven. Williams placed first on the rings with a score of 14.4 that was challenged by his teammate Jake Carlson (Jr., Lakeville, Mass.), who posted a 14.2. Ryan McVay (Jr., Roseville, Calif.) and Ryan Orce (Sr., Gainesville, Fla.) went back-to-back in fourth and fifth place with respective scores of 14.0 and 13.8. The final scorer for Navy on the rings was freshman Giovanni Gambatese (Pewaukee, Wisc.), who placed seventh at 13.55.
 
On the ensuing rotation, the vault, the Mids saw three of their gymnasts record top-five results. Beltran tied his career-high with a 14.9 vault to clear the field by 0.3 points. Connor Van Loo (Fr., Freeland, Mich.) tied Army's Erik Del Cid for second place with a 14.6 effort. Williams was the third Navy vaulter in the top-five as his 14.35 score ranked fifth overall.
 
Max Gerber (Jr., Dix Hills, N.Y.) was Navy's leader on the parallel bars as he graded out with a 13.65-point to finish second. Fellow junior Travis Keller (Centreville, Va.) came in 0.4 points back with a 13.25, good for fourth place. In total, five Mids placed in the top-10 on the parallel bars.
 
Navy's high bar lineup was lights out with a 5.45-point advantage over Army and a 6.05-point margin better than Air Force. All six of the Mids that touched the high bar finished in the top-six. Provost led Navy's top-flight showing with a 13.9-point effort. McVay challenged Provost and finished 0.15 points shy of his teammate with a 13.75. Gambatese turned in Navy's third 13.0-plus score with a 13.3 result. Gerber came in fourth place as he earned a 12.95 score. The trio of Cash Buske (So., Madison, Wisc.), Orce and Air Force's Brandon Bzoskie all tied for fifth with identical 12.75's.
 
The Mids' floor exercise squad nearly equaled the output of its high bar brethren as they took five of the top-six placements. Williams won his second event of the day with a career-best 14.15 score. Provost was right behind Williams with a 14.1 score of his own to finish second. Van Loo turned in a career-high 14.0 that was fourth highest in the field. Frank Bradley (Sr., McLean, Va.) and David Toussaint (Jr., Warren, Ohio) rounded out Navy's scoring lineup with respective scores of 13.85 and 13.75.
 
Navy put a bow on its title-winning performance on the pommel horse. Dan Clark (So., Avon, Mass.) and Toussaint led the way for the Mids in this final event with Clark finishing third at 13.6 and Toussaint fourth with a 13.4.
 
"We are excited to come home and have a few weekends off as we prepare for the second half of our schedule and the postseason," said Simons.
 
Saturday's competition was the final of the first half of Navy's season and was the fifth meet in five weeks. The Mids will be off from team competition for three weeks before stepping into the gym in Columbus, Ohio for a head-to-head matchup with the Ohio State Buckeyes on Feb. 29.