DANBURY, Conn. - Following a strong open to the 2021 season versus No. 3 Ohio State on Saturday, Navy's underclass duo of Giovanni Gambatese (So., Pewaukee, Wisc.) and Syam Buradagunta (Fr., Westborough, Mass.) were recognized as the Eastern College Athletic Conference Specialist and Rookie of the Week, respectively. 

Gambatese was the highest scoring Navy gymnast on a pair of events on Saturday in the Mids' virtual competition against the Buckeyes of Ohio State. The sophomore tied for second overall on the parallel bars with a 13.15 score and fifth on the vault with a 14.25. He was edged out OSU's Jesse Tyndall on parallel bars by 0.35 points, while he was just 0.20 points out of first place in a crowd top of the leaderboard for the vault. This is the second career ECAC weekly honor for Gambatese as he was selected as the conference's Rookie of the Week on January 22, 2020.
 
In his collegiate debut, Buradagunta led Navy's floor exercise lineup and was an integral part of the Mids' pommel horse and vaulting teams, as he scored for the team in all three events in their season opener versus Ohio State on Saturday. The freshman placed fifth on the floor exercise with a score of 13.3 (first for Navy), sixth on the pommel horse with a 12.3 score (second for Navy) and 11th on the vault with a 13.8 (fifth-best for Navy).

These are the first two ECAC weekly honors for the Navy men's gymnastics team in 2021.

The Mids are away from action this weekend before turning their attention next week to the 2021 All-Academy Championship at West Point on Saturday, February 13. Navy will go head-to-head with Army and Air Force in a battle for service academy supremacy, first touch is set for 2 p.m.