FRISCO, Texas – One week after a 17.7-point victory over Army in the 2022 Star Meet, the Navy gymnastics team doubled down on its dominance versus service academy rivals as the Mids captured their fourth straight All-Academy Championship with a 12.25 advantage over the field of Army and Air Force on Saturday night. Competing at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Navy outscored its rivals on four events on its way to a 393.5 final score. Army placed second with 381.25 points to hold off Air Force, who recorded a team score of 379.9.
Navy's depth was on display on Saturday night as five different Mids staked claim on individual event wins. Team captain
Dhiren Lutchman (Sr., Beltsville, Md.), who was victorious on the parallel bars, was joined by a quartet of underclassmen as sophomores
Syam Buradagunta (Westborough, Mass.) and
Ronan McQuillan (Katy, Texas) won the floor exercise and pommel horse disciplines, respectively before the freshmen duo of
Isaiah Drake (Los Angeles, Calif.) and
Riley Rose (Las Vegas, Nev.) tied for top honors on the high bar.
As a team, Navy scored 68.05 points on the floor exercise, 65.5 on the pommel horse, 65.25 on the rings, 69.5 on the vault, 63.05 on the parallel bars and 62.15 on the high bar.
"We were good tonight and got the job done for the fourth year in a row at the All-Academy Championship," remarked head coach
Kip Simons. "It's been a grind as we competed for the fifth consecutive weekend. We need a few days to rest. We've executed at a high level since the beginning of the season, recovery will be important for the next phase of our season."
The Mids were strong from start to finish as they swept each of the first four events on Saturday night. Beginning with the floor exercise, Navy outscored its opposition by over two points. Buradagunta placed first in the discipline as he recorded a 14.6 score to clear Army's Mathew Davis, who was second at 14.1. The pairing of
Josh Williams (Sr., Cypress, Texas) and
Caleb Hickey (So., Carthage, N.C.) finished close together in third and fourth place with respective scores of 13.85 and 13.70.
Navy continued separating itself from its rivals with a 3.15-point advantage over Air Force and a 13.35-point margin over Army on the pommel horse. The Mids dominated the top of the standings with a clean sweep of the top-three positions. McQuillan headlined the trio of underclassmen as he out-pointed Drake by just 0.05 points, 13.55 to 13.50.
John Wendeborn (Tomball, Texas) was the third Midshipmen in the sequence and he shattered his previous career-high of 12.4 with a 13.1 on Saturday night. Buradagunta made it four Navy gymnasts in the top-five as he placed fifth at 12.7.
Dan Clark (Sr., Avon, Mass.) was 0.05 points back of his fellow Massachusetts native and tied for sixth with a 12.65 to round out Navy's lineup.
The rings rotation was more hotly-contested as Navy held off Army by 0.7 points overall, 65.25 to 64.55. All three programs had gymnasts in the top-three with Army's Davis on top with a 13.75 result. Williams came in second with a 13.55 score to finish ahead of Air Force's Garrett Braunton, who earned a 13.45. Drake earned his second top-four score of the evening as his 13.35 effort ranked him fourth in the field. Lutchman tied for fifth overall as his routine was awarded a 13.10. Competing in his home state for the first time as a collegiate,
Vishal Mandava (Fr., Cypress, Texas) placed seventh with a 12.95 score.
The Mids kept racking up points and expanding their lead on the vault turn as they posted a 69.5 team score. Though not necessarily recording the top individual scores during the rotation, Navy's depth led them to the event victory. Drake was the only Mid in the top-five as he scored 14.2 points to rank second overall, 0.1 points out of first place.
Nehemiah Baker (Sr., Oak Ridge, N.C.) was the next Navy gymnast in the standings as he netted 13.9, good for sixth place.
Connor Van Loo (Jr., Freeland, Mich.) and Williams posted scores within 0.05 points of each other to place seventh and eighth respectively, at 13.85 and 13.8.
Navy's third individual win at the tri-meet came in the form of Lutchman's dominant 0.45-point advantage over Air Force's Braunton on the parallel bars, 14.0 to 13.55. Hickey backed up his team captain's performance with a 13.4 score to finish fourth in the standings. Gambatese was the third Midshipmen in terms of scoring as he placed tenth with a 12.5 effort.
Recreating their matching scores from last week's Army-Navy Star Meet, the freshmen pair of Drake and Rose closed out the meet with bang as they tied for the top spot on the high bar with respective 13.05 scores. Senior
Cash Buske (Madison, Wisc.) made it a three-man sweep at the top of the standings as he earned 13.0 points for his routine.
Competing in the all-around for the second straight week, Drake came in third with 77.7 points. Davis from Army and Oliver Zavel from Air Force placed ahead of Drake with respective totals of 80.1 and 79.25. Drake's day consisted of a 12.8 on the floor, a 13.5 on the pommel horse, a 13.35 on the rings, a 14.2 on the vault, a 10.8 on the parallel bars and a 13.05 on the high bar.
Navy will head back into head-to-head ECAC league action next with a road tilt at Springfield College next Sunday. First touch in Massachusetts is set for 12 p.m. at Blake Arena.
