WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – Competing in a head-to-head meet for the first time in three weeks, the Navy gymnastics team showed little rust and quickly broke out to a six-point lead through the initial three disciplines on its way to a 389.85-381.85 victory over William & Mary on the road on Saturday afternoon. The Mids (6-0) were led by five individual event winners as they continued to be undefeated in head-to-head competitions this season.
 
Strong individual performances throughout the meet at Kaplan Arena provided Navy with everything it would need to knock off its ECAC league rival, William & Mary in its penultimate regular season tilt. Syam Buradagunta (So., Westborough, Mass.) led off the quintet of victors on Saturday as he placed first on the floor exercise. He was followed in quick succession by John Wendeborn (So., Tomball, Texas) and Josh Williams (Sr., Cypress, Texas), who placed first on the pommel horse and rings, respectively. A career-best score on the vault by Nehemiah Baker (Sr., Oak Ridge, N.C.) claimed the Mids' fourth win of the afternoon before Cash Buske (Sr., Madison, Wisc.) rounded out the competition with an event-winning result on the high bar.
 
As a team, Navy scored 64.8 points on the floor exercise, 61.8 on the pommel horse, 65.45 on the rings, 70.8 on the vault, 64.25 on the parallel bars and 62.75 on the high bar. The marks on the vault and parallel bars are each the second-highest by a Midshipmen lineup in a meet this season.

"That was a good road win today against a conference foe," remarked head coach Kip Simons. "We got our legs under us again after a couple of weekends off. We had a few mistakes today and we'll work to fix them as we approach the postseason. The potential for a strong postseason is real for this team if we stay committed to the process and execute the small necessary details."
 
The action on Saturday began with Navy taking a 3.1-point lead over William & Mary on the floor exercise. The Mids swept the top-three positions atop the leaderboard as Buradagunta netted 13.3 points to finish first overall. Connor Van Loo (Jr., Freeland, Mich.) and Williams were right behind with matching 13.15 scores to tie for second place. Caleb Hickey (So., Carthage, N.C.) made it four Mids in the top-five as he earned 12.85 points to rank fifth.
 
Navy extended its lead by 1.25 points in the next rotation as its sophomore class provided the firepower with three of the top-six scores on the pommel horse. For the first time in his young career, Wendeborn placed first in an event as he turned in a 13.1 effort on Saturday. His classmate Erik Engelke (Henrico, Va.) shattered his previous career-high and scored a 12.8 for his routine, good for third place. The Mids' third scorer on the pommel horse was Ronan McQuillan (So., Katy, Texas), who placed sixth at 12.1.
 
The Mids built out its advantage to six points after the rings as the team went first, second and fourth on the strength of its senior class. Williams was locked in during his routine and executed his 5.2 set with a 9.1 execution score for a total of 14.3 points. Team captain Dhiren Lutchman (Sr., Beltsville, Md.) placed second overall in the field as he scored 13.35 points. Competing on the rings for the second time this season, Buske set a new personal-best with a 12.9 score, that placed him fourth in the standings.
 
Navy made it four wins over the first four events as the team outscored William & Mary on the vault, 70.8-68.15 on the strength of Baker's new career-high score of 14.45. Van Loo was 0.1 points shy of Baker's vault with a 14.35 score. Of note with Van Loo's vault, he was graded with an event-high 9.55 execution score. Buradagunta and Williams gave Navy a clean sweep of the top-four positions with respective vaults of 14.1 and 14.0. Hickey was just 0.1 points back of Williams in sixth place with a 13.9 on Saturday.
 
William & Mary made slight in-roads on the scoreboard over the final two events, the parallel bars and high bar to tighten the final margin to 8.0 points. In the fifth rotation, the parallel bars, the Tribe earned their first individual winner as Aidan Cuy placed first at 13.45. Lutchman challenged Cuy and came in 0.2 points back in second place at 13.25. The freshmen duo of Vishal Mandava (Cypress, Texas) and Sabastian Gordon (Old Tappan, N.J.) tied for third with identical scores of 13.0. to round out Navy's top performers on the p-bars.
 
Though his team was outscored by 0.3 points, Buske stood out on the high bar to conclude the meet. Executing his 4.9 routine with 8.6 execution, Buske finished atop the standings with an overall score of 13.6. Competing in his fourth event of the day, Hickey nearly equaled Buske's output and netted Navy 13.5 points. That score bested Hickey's previous career-high of 13.15 set at Springfield in February. After a run of four straight William & Mary gymnasts, Mandava aided Navy's effort with a seventh-place score of 12.0.
 
The Mids will round out their regular season next Saturday on the road with a three-team meet hosted at the United States Air Force Academy. The contest in Colorado Springs is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. (ET) and has Navy facing off with Air Force and Illinois at Cadet West Gym.