FRISCO, Texas – The Navy gymnastics team battled throughout Saturday night's All-Academy Championship and fell just short of defending its title for the fifth straight year as a fast start by Air Force stood up for a 3.55-point victory. The service academy tri-meet at The Ford Center at The Star was action-packed start-to-finish and saw the Mids rally in the second half making up nearly one point on the Falcons and over four points on the Black Knights of Army.
 
At the conclusion of the contest, Air Force was victorious with a final score of 396.55. Navy came-from-behind to overtake Army for second place down the stretch, 393.00 to 389.15.
 
Navy's individual performance on Saturday night was led by six top-three results, including event wins by Matthew Petros (Fr., Broadview Heights, Ohio) on the vault and Isaiah Drake (So., Los Angeles, Calif.) on the high bar. Additionally, Drake posted the third-best result on the vault. Giovanni Gambatese (Sr., Pewaukee, Wisc.) and Caleb Hickey (Jr., Carthage, N.C.) aided the Mids' comeback with a tie for second on the high bar, while Syam Buradagunta (Jr., Westborough, Mass.) was strong for Navy in the first half with a third-place score on the floor exercise.
 
As a team, Navy scored 65.7 points on the floor exercise, 62.65 on the pommel horse, 64.6 on the rings, 70.3 on the vault, 65.9 on the parallel bars and 63.85 on the high bar.
 
The Mids' competition started on the pommel horse. Buradagunta carried the flag for Navy with a fifth-place score of 13.3. The duo of Danilo Viciana (Fr., Marietta, Ga.) and Ronan McQuillan (Jr., Katy, Texas) followed close behind in seventh and eighth with respective scores of 13.05 and 13.0.
 
Competing in his first-ever All-Academy Championship, Viciana used that momentum on the next event, the rings, and turned in the fourth-best score in the field with a 13.2. His teammate Drake matched that outcome to give Navy two gymnasts in the top-four. Both of the pommel horse and rings scores by Viciana were career-highs.
 
The Mids closed out the first half of the meet on the floor exercise and again received a pair of top-four results. Battling through an early-season injury, Buradagunta suited up as part of the floor team for the first time since Jan. 14 and showed minimal rust with a score of 13.7 that was just 0.05 points shy of second place Sam Metzler of Air Force. Connor Van Loo (Sr., Freeland, Mich.) was awarded a 13.4 score that was good for fourth overall.
 
Trailing Air Force by 4.5 points and Army by 0.65 at the halfway point of the meet, Navy was locked in over the final three events. The Mids started out the second half on the parallel bars and saw a pair of gymnasts rank in the top-five as Vishal Mandava (So., Cypress, Texas) and Gambatese were closely packed in fourth and fifth place, just 0.05 points a part with 13.5 and 13.45 scores, respectively.
 
Navy's breakthrough event on Saturday night was the high bar as its five-man lineup was 0.8 points better than Army's and 1.65 points higher than Air Force's. A sweep of the top-three positions by Drake, Hickey and Gambatese was the storyline for the Mids on the high bar. Drake cruised to the event crown by .3 points with a 13.55, while Hickey and Gambatese tied for runner-up status with identical 13.25s.
 
Navy's winning ways carried through the final event as Petros nailed his vault that had a 4.8 difficulty score with a meet-high 9.55 execution score and a 0.1 stick bonus for a career-high 14.45 score that was good for first place. Drake was also strong on the vault as he netted a score of 14.35 to place third overall.
 
Following Saturday night's meet, Navy will step away from collegiate competition for two weeks as the USA Gymnastics Winter Cup takes center stage next Friday and Sunday in Louisville, Ky. Invited individuals from across the pro, collegiate and youth ranks will compete at the Winter Cup. The Mids' next meet as a team will be a head-to-head matchup versus William & Mary at home in Halsey Field House on Sunday, March 5.