SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Competing in their sixth meet in as many weeks, the Navy gymnastics team trotted out a variety of new lineups against the Springfield College Pride on Sunday afternoon in Springfield. With their roster depth on full display, the Mids (5-0) received a clutch performance by its high bar lineup on the final rotation to overcome a 3.1-point deficit and defeat the Pride (0-2) by a 385.3 to 381.9 final score.
Navy had four individual event winners on Sunday's meet at Blake Arena led by the senior duo of
Dan Clark (Avon, Mass.) and
Dhiren Lutchman (Beltsville, Md.) on the pommel horse and parallel bars, respectively. Additional winners for the Mids were freshman
Vishal Mandava (Cypress, Texas) on the rings and
Syam Buradagunta (Westborough, Mass.) on the high bar.
"This afternoon was a great conference win against a really strong opponent," remarked head coach
Kip Simons. "We used today as an opportunity to test our depth charts and we came out on top. There were a lot of new faces and new routines out there and they found a way to come away with a victory. They say pressure is a privilege; well today the high bar team had the privilege of hitting five routines to seal the victory."
As a team, Navy scored 61.65 points on the floor exercise, 64.05 on the pommel horse, 63.05 on the rings, 69.3 on the vault, 62.35 on the parallel bars and 64.9 on the high bar.
With a squad full of underclassmen across its five-man lineup on the floor exercise on Sunday, sophomore
Erik Engelke (Henrico, Va.) led the Mids' effort as he netted 13.05 points to rank fifth overall. Fellow sophomores
Caleb Hickey (Carthage, N.C.) and
Ian Dinmore (Odenton, Md.) aided Navy's cause on the floor with respective scores of 12.75 and 12.7, that ranked seventh and eighth overall in the field.
Navy was able to shave 0.85 points off of its early deficit on the next apparatus, the pommel horse. Competing in his home state for the final time in his collegiate career, Clark was firing on all cylinders for his routine as he bested the entire field by 0.85 points with a 14.15 score. Springfield's Juan Gomez was second at 13.4.
John Wendeborn (So., Tomball, Texas) placed third in the standings with a 13.3 ahead of Buradagunta, who found himself in a three-way tie for fourth place with a 12.8 score.
Mandava was the second Mid in as many events to claim an individual win as he edged Springfield's David Handron for the rings title on Sunday with a 13.15 to 13.1 final margin.
Cash Buske (Sr., Madison, Wisc.) and Engelke finished back-to-back in fifth and sixth place with scores of 12.65 and 12.55, respectively.
Navy once again knocked some points off of Springfield's lead on the vault as the Mids drew 0.8 points closer.
Josh Williams (Sr., Cypress, Texas) and Buradagunta spearheaded Navy's effort as the duo finished in second and third respectively with 14.1 and 14.05 efforts. Hickey was the third Mid to net his squad points as he placed sixth with a 13.8.
Matthew Rosendahl (So., Upperco, Md.) and
Alexander Kramer (Jr., Frisco, Texas) both made their season debuts on the vault on Sunday and recorded scores of 13.7 and 13.65.
Trailing by 3.7 points through four rotations, the Mids were able to cut another 0.6 points off their deficit on the parallel bars. Team captain
Dhiren Lutchman dominated his opposition on the parallel bars with a 0.75-point margin of victory over Dominic Ramalho, 13.55 to 12.8. Mandava was right behind Ramalho in the standings with a 12.6 score, good for third place. In his first collegiate meet,
Sabastian Gordon (Fr., Old Tappan, N.J.) placed fourth overall with a 12.5 effort.
With the score 323.5 to 320.4 in favor of Springfield going into the final event, the Mids turned in a crisp five-for-five outing with all five routines netting scores of 12.2 or better to earn the hard-fought come-from-behind victory. Buradagunta led the charge as turned in a score of 13.4 that put him atop the standings. Engelke and Hickey made it a sweep of the top-three positions with respective scores of 13.2 and 13.15. Buske continued Navy's dominance at the top as he placed fourth overall with a 12.95 score. The final member of the Mids' high bar crew that outscored the Pride by 6.5 points on the high bar was Gordon, who recorded a 12.2.
Competing on the floor exercise (11.55) and parallel bars (11.8),
William Champagne (Fr., Douglas, Mass.) also made his collegiate debut on Sunday.
"We're looking forward to the next two weeks where we can make upgrades to our routines to prepare for the important run of postseason action," said Simons in closing.
Navy will be away from collegiate competition for two weeks as the USA Gymnastics Winter Cup takes center stage next Friday and Sunday in Frisco, Texas. The Mids next meet will be a head-to-head matchup at William & Mary on Saturday, March 12.
