ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy gymnastics team will have a busy and exciting end to its regular season this week with a majority of the squad competing in a collegiate road matchup at Simpson College on Thursday evening, while Isaiah Drake (So., Los Angeles, Calif.) will be across the globe in Stuttgart, Germany at the 2023 DTB Pokal Mixed Cup Challenge. Thursday night's action is scheduled for a 7 p.m. ET first touch (6 p.m. local in Indianola, Iowa) at Cowles Fieldhouse. Three days later on Sunday morning, Drake and his teammates representing the United States will compete at the DTB Pokal Gymnastics Festival starting at 9:30 a.m. ET.

The Navy-Simpson College matchup will be streamed live on the Virtius platform with live results populating in real-time on the site.

Drake at the 2023 DTB Pokal Mixed Cup Challenge
Part of the three-day DTB Pokal Gymnastics Festival in Stuttgart, Germany, the event will feature 15 U.S. athletes in men's, women's and mixed competition, March 17-19. Olympians Brody Malone (Stanford University), Yul Moldauer (Oklahoma alum) and Shane Wiskus (Minnesota alum) will be joined by Asher Hong (Stanford University) and Fred Richard (University of Michigan) in the men's competition on Friday and Saturday before the DTB Pokal Mixed Cup takes center stage on Sunday. The U.S. will be represented by Nola Matthews, Elle Mueller, Addison Fatta on the women's side, and Jeremy Bischoff (Stanford University), Landon Blixt (/University of Michigan) and Drake on the men's side. Two men and two women will compete on each apparatus.

This will be Drake's first international competition as a member of the Navy gymnastics team. Prior to coming to Annapolis, Drake, a member of the U.S. Senior Development Team, suited up for the Red, White and Blue in junior events in Hungary, Germany (Berlin) and Argentina. He is the first member of the Navy men's gymnastics team in modern history to earn on spot on either the United States' Senior National Team or the United States' Senior National Development Team. Drake acquired his spot for his efforts at the 2022 U.S. Classic and 2022 U.S. Gymnastics Championships during this past summer.

Navy-Simpson Series
Thursday night will be the first-ever collegiate meet between Navy and Simpson College. The Storm are a first-year varsity program under the direction of former Navy assistant coach Colin Payne. Payne was on staff with the Mids from September 2017 through the conclusion of the 2021 season before heading to Iowa and leading the start-up of the Simpson College program. 13 of the 15 gymnasts on the Simpson roster are in their first year of collegiate competition.

The Storm kicked off their first season on January 21 at the the 2023 Navy Open. The host Mids outscored them 386.05 to 337.90 in Halsey Field House.

Comparing the Squads
    (2023 Averages)

	Navy	Individual Leader	Simpson	Individual Leader
All-Around	393.95	N/A	356.43	Pariza, 71.40
Floor Exercise	66.28	Van Loo, 13.68	62.22	Pariza, 12.98
Pommel Horse	63.15	McQuillan, 13.55	54.93	Sipos, 11.65
Rings	65.02	Drake, 13.62	57.60	Villani, 12.10
Vault	70.53	Van Loo, 14.57	67.22	Villani, 13.92
Parallel Bars	66.18	Drake, 13.58	60.47	Catchpole, 12.87
High Bar	64.15	Gambatese, 13.17	54.95	Bontempo, 11.88

Last Time Out: vs. Stanford and William & Mary, Saturday, March 11
Energized by a top-flight field of competitors from Stanford and Air Force, the Navy gymnastics team recorded a season-best score of 395.3 on Saturday afternoon. Testing themselves against the three-time defending NCAA Champions, the No. 2 Cardinal and their service academy rivals, the No. 9 Falcons, the No. 8 Mids had a strong first half to its meet as they posted season-highs on the pommel horse and rings before surpassing their season averages on the vault and high bar down the stretch. At the completion of the tri-meet, Stanford was victorious with 423.55 points ahead of Navy, who was runner-up with 395.3 points. Air Force was over five points back in third place with a 389.55 on Saturday at the Halsey Field House Gymnastics Facility.
 
Individually, Ian Dinmore and Giovanni Gambatese led the Mids' effort with matching fourth-place results as Dinmore was one of the top performers on the floor exercise, while Gambatese did the same on the high bar. Additionally, Syam Buradagunta scored a career-high 13.45 points on the pommel horse and William Champagne posted career-highs on pommel horse and vault.
 
As a team, Navy scored 65.6 points on the floor exercise, 64.2 on the pommel horse, 65.9 on the rings, 70.95 on the vault, 64.5 on the parallel bars and 64.15 on the high bar.