ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy men's gymnastics team will kick off its 2023 season this weekend with two days of action at the West Point Open. After posting their best finish at the NCAA Championships in program history and graduating eight seniors from their 2022 team, the Mids and head coach Kip Simons will be looking to re-load on the fly this season. Young, deep and talented, Navy has its eyes on once again reigning supreme at the regional and conference levels with the end goal of reaching the NCAA Championship in April. In total, Navy is slated to participate in eight regular season competitions and two postseason championships with a spot in the NCAA Championships on the line. Taking off since Simons took over the program prior to the 2016 season, the Mids have earned annual bids to the NCAA Championship in six of Simons' first seven seasons, with the only outlier being 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly curtailed the Mids march to the NCAAs. At the 2022 national meet at the University of Oklahoma, Navy turned in its highest finish as it scored 399.023 points to rank seventh overall. Additionally, nine individual Midshipmen advanced to compete in the event finals of the championship.

What's Ahead - West Point Open
Navy will be in action at the multi-team 2023 West Point Open on Friday and Saturday night. The team and all-around competition begins the two-day event at Army's Holleder Center on Friday starting at 7 p.m. Navy will be vying for the team title against Army, Nebraska, Penn State and Springfield. The Mids, Huskers and Nittany Lions all concluded their 2022 seasons ranked in the top-eight as Nebraska finished fourth at the NCAA Championship, while Navy edged Penn State for seventh place. The individual event titles will be up for grabs on Saturday night as the eight highest qualifiers from each apparatus will go head-to-head starting at 7 p.m. Army's Knight Vision streaming service will be providing video for Friday night's portion of the event.

Who's Back
The make-up of the 2023 roster is dominated by the underclass as 14 of the 24 gymnasts are either freshmen (8) or sophomores (6). A small senior class is led by team captain Giovanni Gambatese and bolstered by Alexander Kramer and Connor Van Loo. The junior class has seven talented gymnasts, who will be counted on to continue their roles as apparatus leaders or ascending into the discussion of consistent starting assignments. Syam Buradagunta, Erik Engelke, Caleb Hickey, Ronan McQuillan and John Wendeborn all saw regular action with strong results in 2022, while Ian Dinmore and Matthew Rosendahl have been building on a strong offseason and will be challenging larger roles in 2023. The Class of 2025 kicked off their collegiate careers last season and were led by ECAC Rookie of the Year and member of the U.S. Senior National Development Team, Isaiah Drake, and regular starters Vishal Mandava and Riley Rose. William Champagne, Sabastian Gordon and RJ Spears were all called upon in limited action in 2022, but will look to secure more prominent roles this season.

In total, five of the 16 returners earned at least one ECAC All-Conference honor for their performance at the year-end conference championship last April: Buradagunta, Drake, Hickey, McQuillan and Van Loo. Additionally, Buradagunta (FX) and Gambatese (HB) were event champions at the USAG Collegiate Championships. At the sports' grandest stage, Buradagunta, Drake, Gambatese, Hickey, McQuillan and Van Loo all qualified for and competed as individuals on the final night of the NCAA Championships
 
2022 ECAC All-Conference (Top-6)
Syam Buradagunta: 3rd Place (High Bar)
Isaiah Drake: 1st Place (Parallel Bars) / 1st (High Bar) / 2nd (Floor Exercise) / 4th (Vault)
Caleb Hickey: 3rd Place (Floor Exercise) / 4th (Parallel Bars) / 4th (High Bar)
Ronan McQuillan: 6th Place (Pommel Horse) 
Connor Van Loo: 1st Place (Vault) / 4th (Floor Exercise) 
 
2022 NCAA Championship Finals Qualifiers (final rankings & top-10 Qualifying Session results noted)
Syam Buradagunta: t-28th overall in PH finals, 35th (VT) & 42nd (HB) 
Isaiah Drake: 14th (AA); 2nd in Qualifying Session 2
Giovanni Gambatese: t-13th (High Bar)
Caleb Hickey: t-39th (FX)
Ronan McQuillan: 35th (PH); 5th in Qualifying Session 2
Connor Van Loo: t-39th (FX) 8th in Qual. Session 2 / t-32nd (VT); 6th in Qualifying Session 2

Who's New
Having to replace eight 2022 graduates, Kip Simons and his assistant coaches Craig Holt and Mike Reid have brought in eight talented freshmen who are looking to make their mark in the collegiate gymnastics world.

The class comes from across the nation with Garrett Lawless (N.C.), Colby Prince (Fla.) and Danilo Viciana (Ga.) representing the East Coast, while Matthew Petros hails from the Midwest and the state of Ohio. The Mids' pipeline to the Lone Star State proved fruitful once again as Aaron Stein gives Navy its fourth Texan over four classes. Heading to the Rockies, the Mids add Colorado's Colton McCormack before reaching the West Coast with a pair of Californians Daniel Cho and Benjamin Venters.

International/National/State Championship Highlights ...
Cho - Three-sport athlete: gymnastics, ballroom dancing and taekwondo; third in the all-around at the 2022 SoCal State Championship; finalist at the 2022 American Smooth Ballroom Dancing Junior Olympic Championship
Lawless - Runner-up on the rings at both the 2022 North Carolina State and Region 8 Championships
McCormack - Placed sixth on the ring and seventh on p-bars at the 2022 Men's Development Program Nationals
Petros - Two-sport athlete: gymnastics and diving; placed sixth in the all-around at the 2022 Men's Development Program Nationals, 12th at the 2019 Ohio State Diving Championship
Prince - 2022 Florida State Champion for the floor exercise; placed second on the p-bars and third on vault at the same meet; runner-up on the vault at the 2022 Region 8 Championship
Stein - Qualified for and competed at the 2021 U.S. Championships, placed top-10 on both the rings (t-9th) and vault (8th)
Venters - Finished eighth on the p-bars at the 2022 Region I Championship; 2020 SCMGA South Conference All-Around Champion
Viciana - Showcased his talents at the 2021 U.S. Gymnastics, Men's Development Program and Winter Cup National Championships and came away with eight top-10 results; 2022 Region 8 P-Bar Champion
 
2023 Season at a Glance
This weekend's action at the West Point Open will be the first of four straight weeks of early season action. This early run of competition includes the 2023 Navy Open on Jan. 21, a home duel with William & Mary on Jan. 28 and the annual Army-Navy Star Meet on Feb. 4 at West Point. Following a weekend off, service academy glory will be up for grabs at the 2023 All-Academy Championship in Frisco, Texas on Feb. 18. After a brief break for the Winter Cup (Feb. 24-25), the Mids' home regular season slate closes with a head-to-head competition versus William & Mary on March 5 and three-team meet against Stanford and Air Force on March 11. A short road trip to Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa and former assistant coach Colin Payne closes out the regular season on March 16.

All home action in 2023 will be held in the program's new venue in Halsey Fieldhouse.

Following the regular season, Navy will head to Springfield College for the 2023 USAG Collegiate Championships on the weekend of March 24-25 before coming home and hosting the ECAC Championship meet on April 1 in Annapolis. This year's NCAA Championship will be hosted by the Penn State University on the weekend of April 14-15.