WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Navy gymnastics team rounded out its first weekend of action in the 2022 season with a strong series of results in the event finals of the West Point Open. With 10 gymnasts competing in the event finals, including four on multiple apparatus, Navy came away with 11 podium finishes on Saturday night at Christl Arena.
Josh Williams (Sr., Cypress, Texas) led Navy's effort as the senior finished atop the standings on the rings, in addition to placing third on the floor exercise.
Giovanni Gambatese (Jr., Pewaukee, Wisc.) and
Isaiah Drake (Fr., Los Angeles, Calif.) joined Williams as they both doubled up on podium results.
One night after placing first in the team portion of the West Point Open on the rings, Williams was on top of his game once again as he nearly mirrored his 14.0 score with a 13.95 on Saturday night. His effort was the best amongst the eight finalists as he cleared the second-place finisher, his teammate
Alexander Brown (Sr., Lafayette, La.) by 0.3 points. Brown's two ring scores this weekend were a 13.85 and a 13.65 in the finals. The third medalist from Navy was
Vishal Mandava (Fr., Cypress, Texas), who followed a similar script of placing sixth on Friday with a 13.2 and sixth on Saturday at 13.1.
Williams' second top-three result in the event finals came courtesy of a 13.2 score on the floor exercise that ranked third overall. He finished 0.2 points behind Army's Steve Manolakis, who won the event at 13.4.
Syam Buradagunta (So., Westborough, Mass.) was right behind Williams in the standings as he netted 13.15 points for his routine on Saturday night. Buradagunta placed fourth.
Caleb Hickey (So., Carthage, N.C.) barely missed making the podium as he recorded an 11.9 score that was just 0.05 points behind Springfield's Dominic Ramalho, who finished sixth.
Three Midshipmen also competed in the event finals of the high bar. Gambatese and Drake were in the mix near the top of the standings as they turned in respective scores of 13.45 and 13.3. Gambatese's mark placed him second overall, only 0.05 points behind Matt Cormier from Penn State. Drake's effort ranked fourth, 0.2 points shy of Cormier. Competing in his second event of the evening, Buradagunta posted a 12.85 score on the high bar that was eighth-best.
Connor Van Loo (Jr., Freeland, Mich.) matched Gambatese's second-place result with a strong performance on the vault. Starting with a 4.9 difficulty score, Van Loo hit his vault with 9.5 accuracy for an overall score of 14.4, that challenged Sam Lee of William & Mary for first place. Unfortunately for Van Loo, Lee's 4.9 vault was executed with a 9.55 mark for a 14.45 final score.
The Mids had a pair of underclass gymnasts garner medals on the pommel horse as
Ronan McQuillan (So., Katy, Texas) and Drake finished consecutively in third and fourth place. One night after ranking second in the field, McQuillan followed that up on Saturday with a 12.7 result to place third. Drake improved from eighth place on Friday to fourth on Saturday as he turned in a 12.55 score.
Gambatese doubled up his high bar medal with a fifth-place effort on the parallel bars courtesy of his 12.5 score. He was joined in Saturday's finals by
Dhiren Lutchman (Sr., Beltsville, Md.), who netted a 11.9 score from the judges that missed the podium by just 0.3 points. Lutchman ended up seventh in the standings for the parallel bars.
The entire Midshipmen team will be back in early season action next Saturday with the annual Navy Open. In the first competition at Navy's new complex, Halsey Fieldhouse, the Mids will welcome Penn State, Springfield, Temple and William & Mary in the multi-team event that is scheduled for first touch at 2 p.m.
