ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The No. 9 Navy men's gymnastics team opened its 2021 season on Saturday afternoon with a virtual meet against No. 5 Ohio State. In a scene that will play out with semi-regulatory throughout this COVID impacted campaign, the two programs competed in their home gyms and had their routines scored by judges virtually via a live stream. Due to the fluidity of the virtual meet concept, this matchup came together on just six days' notice as Ohio State was originally scheduled to go head-to-head against the University of Michigan this weekend before the Wolverines were forced to cancel. At the conclusion of Saturday's competition, the Buckeyes (2-0) were victorious over the Mids (0-1), 397.2 to 382.0.
 
Syam Buradagunta (Fr., Westborough, Mass.), Jake Carlson (Sr., Lakeville, Mass.), Giovanni Gambatese (So., Pewaukee, Wisc.) and Travis Keller (Sr., Centreville, Va.) all had strong individual outings for the Mids with multiple top-six performances.
 
"I saw team with a lot of potential out there today," remarked head coach Kip Simons. "Taking a competition against The Ohio State on six days' notice is a daunting task. Immediately our leadership approved this meet and our guys were fired up Monday morning. Today was extremely helpful in seeing where we are, what our strengths are and what weaknesses are. We're going to get better, there's no doubt about it. We have next weekend off so we'll have nearly 14 days to prepare as we go into the All-Academy Championship. I love the fight that I saw from the guys."
 
As a team Navy scored 64.4 points on the floor exercise, 61.05 on the pommel horse, 63.8 on the rings, 69.75 on the vault, 62.8 on the parallel bars and 60.2 on the high bar.
 
The Mids and Buckeyes had their closest event margin on the rings as Ohio State edged Navy by just 0.55 points, 64.35 to 63.8. The Mids were led in this third rotation by Carlson and Josh Williams (Jr., Cypress, Texas) who turned in scores of 13.1 and 13.05, respectively, good for second and third overall. Ohio State's Max Andryuschenko was the event winner at 13.25.
 
Navy's vault lineup posted the highest event score with 69.75 points as a pair of gymnasts Gambatese and Keller each posted efforts of 14.0 or better, as Gambatese turned in a 14.25, good for fifth, while Keller was eighth at 14.0.
 
Gambatese and Keller were at the center of Navy's parallel bar effort, as well on Saturday afternoon as the duo tied for second overall with identical scores of 13.15. Ohio State's Jesse Tyndall notched the highest score at 13.5.
 
The Mids' third second-place result of the day came from Ryan McVay's (Sr., Roseville, Calif.) high bar performance as he executed his routine to a 8.1 score and he finished with a 12.9 score. He tied with Ohio State's Kazuki Hayashi; Jesse Tyndall was the event winner at 13.3. Team captain Max Gerber (Dix Hills, N.Y.) was Navy's second-highest scorer with a 12.4 that was seventh-best overall.
 
Navy opened Saturday's competition with turns on the floor exercise and pommel horse. Buradagunta and Keller led the Mids on the floor as they went back-to-back in fifth and sixth place with scores of 13.3 and 13.25, respectively. On the pommel horse, Dan Clark (Jr., Avon, Mass.) took team honors with a third-place score of 12.75. Carlson and Buradagunta tied in sixth with matching 12.3's.
 
Saturday saw four gymnasts make their collegiate debuts for Navy. Sophomore Alexander Kramer (Frisco, Texas) competed for the Mids on the floor exercise and vault, while freshmen Erik Engelke (Henrico, Va.), Caleb Hickey (Carthage, N.C.) and Buradagunta also saw action in multiple events; pommel and high bar for Engelke, floor and parallel bars for Hickey and floor, pommel and vault for Buradagunta.
 
"The plebes did an amazing job in their first ever collegiate meet," said Simons. "It's tough, we're in a quiet Macdonough Hall competing in a virtual meet, but they stepped up and got their nerves under control. I thought they went out and executed really well. The strongest part of our team this year is our depth. Now we can re-work our depth chart based off of today and the fact that some guys are getting healthier. I completely expect a different lineup when we're back in action next. Thankfully, we had today, it was a great opportunity to see where we're at and own we're at. We're not a 400-point team; we're not a 410 team, we now know we're a 382 team, as of today."
 
Saturday was the first of four regular season virtual meets for the Mids. After matching up with the Buckeyes, they will go head-to-head against Stanford, Penn State and Springfield College from the comfort of Macdonough Hall.
 
"In this virtual world, Virtius is giving us a great platform that is really going to help us save our season," remarked Simons. "I know we wouldn't be competing more than a handful of times at West Point against Army; that's what our season was looking like. This platform has given us a way to make this 2021 season meaningful, especially for our seniors. Having our cut-out fans in the stands was a fun opportunity. It let our guys know that we have support from all over, whether it's their parents, family, friends or our alumni. We had over a hundred 'fans' in the stands and we did our best to make sure Macdonough Hall was rocking. There's no doubt about it though, it's weird when you're saluting the judges on a laptop and looking across the gym and not seeing a physical opponent. I know the guys will be excited to go up to West Point to compete against Army and Air Force in-person, but we will have to get used to this virtual environment as we have three more regular season meets with this setup. We're at home on our home apparatus, that's a huge advantage. I thought today was a huge success."
 
Navy will next be in action in two weeks at the 2021 All-Academy Championship on Saturday, February 13. The service academy competition that was originally scheduled as the first event for Navy this season will be hosted by Army. First touch at Gross Center is set for 2 p.m.