MINNEAPOLIS – The Navy gymnastics team had a solid showing in the team portion of the 2021 NCAA Championship qualifying meet on Friday afternoon. Taking part in the first of two six-team qualifying sessions at the Maturi Pavilion on the campus of the University of Minnesota, the No. 9 Mids netted 390.90 points to place fifth overall in the pod. The team's effort was spearheaded by six individual event final qualifiers on five different apparatus.
David Toussaint (Sr., Warren, Ohio) and
Josh Williams (Jr., Cypress, Texas) each qualified for two event finals, while
Ryan McVay (Sr., Roseville, Calif.) earned a spot in Saturday's all-around competition.
"I'm so proud of this team and what we've endured and overcome this season," remarked head coach
Kip Simons. "The guys emptied the tank today and left it all out there. There were so many things to like about today. Getting six gymnasts into the NCAA Finals is a sign the program is continuing to trend in the right direction. This meet was dedicated to our seniors from this year and last."
In the team standings for session one, No. 4 Nebraska (408.623 points), No. 1 Oklahoma (406.190) and No. 8 Illinois (400.721) all advanced to Saturday's NCAA Championship Finals. No. 5 Ohio State (394.956) placed fourth with the Mids 3.966 points back in fifth place (390.90). The 12th seed in Friday's competition, William & Mary finished off the pace in sixth with 371.256 points.
As a team, Navy scored a 68.298 on the floor exercise, a 63.099 on the pommel horse, a 64.565 on the rings, a 70.165 on the vault, a 60.765 on the parallel bars and a 64.098 on the high bar. The Mids' high bar performance was the third-best in the field, coming in ahead of Illinois (63.965), Ohio State (63.698) and William & Mary (62.531).
Navy's day began on the pommel horse with McVay and
Jake Carlson (Sr., Lakeville, Mass.) leading off the team's effort with back-to-back strong scores, a 12.933 for McVay and a 13.4 for Carlson. In the field of 36 gymnasts, that ranked McVay 12th and Carlson fifth, respectively. The Mids' anchor in the pommel horse lineup was Toussaint, who matched Carlson's fifth place result with an identical 13.4. Both Carlson and Toussaint will advance to the event finals of the pommel horse on Saturday night.
Next up for Navy was a turn on the rings and the Mids saw their lineup improve throughout its lineup with each gymnast posting a higher score than the man in front of him. Carlson, Navy's fourth gymnast was the first to crack the 13.0-mark as he graded out with a 13.1, courtesy of a 8.6 execution score. Carlson ranked 21st in the field. The final man up on the rings for Navy on Friday was Williams, who recorded a score of 13.266, good for 17th place and the final qualifying spot from session one in tomorrow night's final.
Navy's sophomore class led the way on the vault for the 2021 ECAC Champions as
Giovanni Gambatese (Pewaukee, Wisc.) and
Connor Van Loo (Freeland, Mich.) each tallied scores in the 14s with Van Loo earning a 14.5 result and Gambatese a 14.233. Looking deeper into Van Loo's routine, the sophomore earned the highest execution score amongst the 36 gymnasts, who posted a vault on Friday. Van Loo graded out with a 9.6 for his execution. Van Loo finished tied for seventh overall in the event, while Gambatese placed 14th, just 0.067 points shy of the final qualifying spot for the vault. Senior
Travis Keller (Centreville, Va.) tied for 18th place with a score of 14.066.
A trio of common names headed up Navy's effort on the parallel bars as McVay and Keller finished back-to-back in 16th and 17th place with scores of 12.766 and 12.7, respectively. Gambatese was the third Midshipmen to finish in the top-20 as he turned in a result of 12.6, good for 20th overall.
Gambatese's stretch of high-level results peaked on the next rotation as he recorded the fifth-best score on the high bar in the entire session with a 13.566. The sophomore was just 0.467 points from equaling Ohio State's Jesse Tyndall, who placed first overall on the apparatus. McVay was the next Midshipmen in the standings as he scored a 13.1 to place 16th.
Navy rounded out its day on the floor exercise with four different gymnasts posting scores of 13.5 or better. Williams led the Mids' charge as he tied for eighth with a 13.966 effort. Toussaint was 0.033 points back in 12th place at 13.933. Van Loo and
Syam Buradagunta (Fr., Westborough, Mass.) finished tightly packed together in 22nd and 23rd place with respective scores of 13.533 and 13.5.
In the all-around competition, McVay came in fourth place overall with 78.564 points. The senior earned the final qualifying position by 1.433 points over William & Mary's Andrew Lyubovsky (77.131). Overall, McVay scored a 13.366 on floor, 12.933 on the pommel horse, 12.966 on the rings, 13.433 on the vault, 12.766 on the parallel bars and 13.1 on the high bar.
Friday marked the final collegiate competition for senior team captain
Max Gerber (Dix Hills, N.Y.) and Keller. Along with Carlson, McVay and Toussaint, Navy's Class of 2021 has appeared at the NCAA Championship each year the national competition has been held (the 2020 meet was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.)
The NCAA Championship Finals are scheduled to begin at 8:00 p.m. (ET) on Saturday night. The six-member of group of Carlson (PH), Gambatese (HB), McVay (AA), Toussaint (FX, PH), Williams (FX, R) and Van Loo (VT) will be competing for the right to earn NCAA All-American status versus gymnasts from the six teams that qualified for the team finals, as well as select individual qualifiers. The action will be televised live on the Big Ten Network.
UPDATE: The final team scores from Session Two on Friday night ...
1) Stanford - 413.855
2) Michigan - 411.455
3) Minnesota - 404.623
4) Penn State - 402.356
5) Iowa - 401.120
6) California - 392.055
