WEST POINT, N.Y. – Coming in as winners of the past two All-Academy Championships, the Navy men's gymnastics team left little up for debate on Saturday as the Mids rolled to a 16.1-point victory over the field of service academy programs. Competing in-person versus the No. 11 Air Force Falcons and No. 13 Army Black Knights at Army's Gross Center, the No. 10 Midshipmen posted a score of 395.20 versus 379.10 points for the Falcons and 377.85 for the Black Knights. Navy dominated in all facets of the competition as the team posted higher scores on five of the six events and tied for top honors on the sixth.
The quartet of
David Toussaint (Sr., Warren, Ohio),
Ryan McVay (Sr., Roseville, Calif.),
Travis Keller (Sr., Centreville, Va.) and
Giovanni Gambatese (So., Pewaukee, Wisc.) all picked up individual event wins, while
Syam Buradagunta (Fr., Westborough, Mass.) placed top-10 in a team-high four events. Toussaint was the highest scoring service academy gymnast on Saturday on the floor exercise, while McVay did the same on the pommel horse. Keller was the top-scorer on the vault with a career-high 14.95 effort. Gambatese closed out the Mids' victory with a 1.05-point margin of victory on the high bar.
As a team, Navy scored 69.05 points on the floor exercise, 65.45 on the pommel horse, 63.3 on the rings, 72.4 on the vault, 63.45 on the parallel bars and 61.55 on the high bar.
"This was a complete performance today from top to bottom," remarked head coach
Kip Simons. "We set the tone for the afternoon by going six-for-six on the pommel horse, which is not easy to do on the road. We executed the pommel horse flawlessly and never looked back. The plebes cut their teeth in service academy competition today. The leadership from the Firsties was powerful. We'll enjoy this victory until Monday and then it's back to work."
The Mids' day began with six strong turns on the floor exercise as all gymnasts scored 13.15 points or more. Toussaint led Navy and the 18 gymnast field with a score of 14.2. Buradagunta was one spot back in second with a 13.8.
Connor Van Loo (So., Freeland, Mich.) and Keller made it four Navy gymnasts in the top-five as Van Loo placed fourth at 13.75, just 0.05 points ahead of Keller's 13.7.
Ahead of Air Force by 1.2 points, Navy put significant space between itself and the field with a 65.45 on the pommel horse that was 5.60 points better then the Falcons, who were second best on the apparatus. McVay was the leader in pommel horse action as he held off his fellow Mids,
Dan Clark (Jr., Avon, Mass.) and Toussaint. McVay turned in a score of 13.4 on Saturday to usurp Clark, who came in second at 13.15, while Toussaint was third at 13.1. Buradagunta rounded out the top-five with a 12.95 effort.
Jake Carlson (Sr., Lakeville, Mass.),
Josh Williams (Jr., Cypress, Texas) and
Alexander Brown (Jr., Lafayette, La.) bolstered Navy's rings lineup as the trio all placed in the top-six. Carlson posted the third-best score at 13.0 to pace the Mids. Williams and Brown went back-to-back in fifth and sixth place with respective scores of 12.8 and 12.7.
The Mids' vaulting corps was in top form at the Gross Center with four of the top-five scores. Keller turned in a career-best vault with a score of 14.95 to claim a 0.35-point victory ahead of his teammate Gambatese (14.60). Van Loo came in 0.05 points shy of his classmate with a 14.55 that ranked third overall. Williams was the fourth highest scoring Navy participant as he placed fifth at 14.35.
Dhiren Lutchman (Jr., Beltsville, Md.) led Navy's effort on the parallel bars with a score of 13.0 that was second-best in the field. The senior duo of Keller and McVay followed up their earlier performances with top-five results on the parallel bars as well with Keller finishing fourth with a 12.9 and McVay fifth with a 12.65.
Gambatese closed out Navy's championship-winning day with a dominant 1.05-point victory on the high bar. The sophomore executed his routine to a 9.05 score that added with his 4.8 difficulty grade gave him a career-best high bar score of 13.85.
Cash Buske (Jr., Madison, Wisc.) and Buradagunta made it three Mids in the top-five as the placed consecutively with Buske recording at 12.7, good for fourth, while Buradagunta was fifth at 12.3.
Saturday's event begins a busy stretch of competition for Navy as the Mids will have eight events over the next seven weeks. The coming week will see Navy go head-to-head with Stanford in a virtual meet on Wednesday afternoon before traveling down to Williamsburg, Va. for a Sunday in-person contest at William & Mary. First touch on Wednesday is set for 3 p.m., while Sunday's is scheduled for 3 p.m.
