WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The No. 9 Navy men's gymnastics team concluded a busy week of action with a strong road effort on Sunday afternoon at No. 11 William & Mary. Competing for the third time in eight days, the Mids (3-2) used their depth to defeat the Tribe (1-1), 395.60-385.45 at Kaplan Arena. Navy outscored William & Mary in five different events and had individuals place first on five apparatus on its way to a team-best scoring mark for the 2021 season.
Josh Williams (Jr., Cypress, Texas) started the individual wins with a victory on the floor exercise before
Jake Carlson (Sr., Lakeville, Mass.) and
David Toussaint (Sr., Warren, Ohio) shared top-billing on the pommel horse. On the rings, Carlson was joined in first place by classmate
Ryan McVay (Roseville, Calif.).
Travis Keller (Sr., Centreville, Va.) and
Giovanni Gambatese (So., Pewaukee, Wisc.) closed out the list of victorious Midshipmen as they claimed wins on the parallel bars and high bar, respectively.
As a team, Navy posted a score of 68.4 on the floor exercise, a 64.85 on the pommel horse, 65.0 on the rings, 69.2 on the vault, 64.45 on the parallel bars and a 63.7 on the high bar.
"This capped a really successful eight-day run with three competitions," remarked head coach
Kip Simons. "Fortunately, we had the depth to get through this stretch with fresh bodies."
The Mids started out strong as the visitors outscored the Tribe by 3.15 points on the floor exercise and 4.65 points on the pommel horse. Williams paced the field of floor exercise competitors with a career-best 14.5-point effort. Toussaint was right behind his teammate in second place with a 14.35.
Syam Buradagunta (Fr., Westborough, Mass.) made it three Navy gymnasts in the top-four with a score of 13.5.
On the pommel horse, Navy was in dominant form as Midshipmen claimed the top four individual positions with
Jake Carlson and Toussaint tying for first place at 13.1. McVay was just 0.05 points shy of making it a three-way tie with his senior classmates as he was credited with a 13.05-point score.
Ronan McQuillan (Fr., Katy, Texas) rounded out the run of four straight Mids atop the standings as he posted a 12.95. Navy's final two pommel horse competitors,
Dan Clark (Jr., Avon, Mass.) and
Erik Engelke (Fr., Henrico, Va.), cemented the lineup's dominance as they went back-to-back in six and seventh place at 12.65 and 12.4, respectively.
The Mids continued thriving atop the leaderboard as they netted the top three positions on the rings. The seniors duo of Carlson and McVay shined again they each recorded scores of 13.25. Williams finished third with a 13.05 on the rings. Gambatese gave Navy its fourth gymnast in the top-five as he earned a 12.85 to place fifth overall.
Though unable to earn the top individual spot on the vault, Navy had its presence felt in a big way as the Mids swept the next five positions on the leaderboard with just a 0.1-point separation throughout its lineup. Following William & Mary's Ian Creelman, who won the vault with a 14.1, Williams, Toussaint and Buradagunta took the next three placements; Williams second with a 13.9, while Toussaint and Buradagunta tied for third at 13.85.
Connor Van Loo (So., Freeland, Mich.) and Keller tied for fifth with identical 13.8 scores.
Holding a double-digit lead through four rotations, the Mids earned a pair of event wins and three top-five results on each of their turns on parallel bars and high bar. Keller was catalyst of Navy's parallel bars lineup as he posted a 13.55 that outscored William & Mary's Andrew Lyubovsky by 0.1 points. Engelke tied with the Tribe's Ahmir Postell for third place with a 12.9-point result. Fellow Navy freshmen
Caleb Hickey (Carthage, N.C.) came in fifth at 12.85.
The Mids closed out their win on the high bar as Gambatese breezed to a 0.4-point margin of victory, 13.6 to 13.2 over Lyubovsky. Hickey and McVay each added to their haul of top-five results on Sunday as they earned scores of 12.7 and 12.65, good for fourth and fifth place, respectively.
"We have six-week exams and Penn State staring us down this week," said Simons. "We'll get back to work, but plan to train through Penn State in preparation for Army on March 6. We're good right now, but if we want to be great, we'll need 100 percent buy-in for the next eight weeks."
Navy will be back in action next Saturday afternoon with a virtual meet against Penn State. First touch is set for 1 p.m.
