SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – In a meet that will go down in the record books, Navy and Air Force went toe-to-toe for 30 routines on Friday as part of the 2023 USAG Collegiate Championship at Springfield's Blake Arena. After the Falcons held a 0.95-point lead at the mid-way point of the competition and the Mids pulled ahead by 0.15 points through five rotations, a strong final turn on the rings by Navy helped the Mids clinch their third straight team title.
 
The final scoreboard showed Navy on top with a season-high 396.80 points, 1.3 to the positive of Air Force, who tallied 395.50 points. The host Springfield College Pride posted a score 387.35 to earn bronze, while William & Mary and Simpson rounded out the field with scores of 382.20 and 360.50, respectively.
 
This USAG Collegiate Championship title is the third straight for Navy and is the program's fifth in the history of competition that dates back to 1983. The meet is open to Division I, II or III, four-year institutions with gymnastics as a varsity sport that provide two or less full scholarships, as well as the military academies. The top-eight scorers on each apparatus, with a maximum of two gymnasts per team will advance to Saturday's individual event finals.
 
Individually, Navy gymnasts recorded the top score on five of the six apparatus on Friday afternoon. Connor Van Loo (Sr., Freeland, Mich.) aced his floor exercise routine to the tune of a 14.35 score, 0.25 better than his next closest competitor. Isaiah Drake (So., Los Angeles, Calif.) was even more dominant on the rings as he cleared the field by 0.55 points with a 13.8 effort. Drake mirrored his first-place result on the vault with a 14.55, while William Champagne (So., Douglas, Mass.) tied for top billing on the parallel bars courtesy of a career-best 14.0. Team captain Giovanni Gambatese (Sr., Pewaukee, Wisc.) was the fourth Mid to claim a spot on the top of the standings as he held off the field and turned in a score of 13.3 on the high bar.
 
Including the above mentioned four gymnasts, Navy had a total of seven different competitors qualify for Saturday's event finals.
 
As a team, Navy scored 69.00 points on the floor exercise, 62.55 on the pommel horse, 65.25 on the rings, 71.05 on the vault, 66.20 on the parallel bars and 62.75 on the high bar.
 
"This is exactly the way that we wanted to start our postseason push," remarked head coach Kip Simons. "This was a total team effort today as we hit 29 of our 30 routines. Every one of our guys stepped up and fought hard against a formidable opponent in the Air Force Academy. We're excited to keep building off of this momentum and return home next weekend for the ECAC Championship. We're focused on defending our conference title."
 
The Mids' day started on the vault and their lineup was hitting on all cylinders as it posted the second-highest cumulative event score of the season. The aforementioned Drake set the tone with the best score on the apparatus on Friday at 14.55. Van Loo was right behind his teammate with a 14.50 result. Appearing in his first postseason meet of his career, Matthew Petros (Fr., Broadview Heights, Ohio) tied for fourth place with a score of 14.35.
 
Navy built off that extremely fast start with a solid turn on the parallel bars with three Mids finishing in the top-10. Champagne blew past his previous career-high of 13.45 with a 14.0 performance on Friday. The sophomore duo of Drake and Vishal Mandava (Cypress, Texas) tied for tenth place with matching 13.35 scores.
 
The Mids' high bar team clicked to the tune of four of the top-six results. Gambatese headlined the field of 26 participants with a 13.3 score. After Air Force's Garrett Braunton and William & Mary's Evan Sikra came in second and third, Navy had a trio of gymnasts post 13.0 scores to tie for fourth place. Junior Erik Engelke (Henrico, Va.) and sophomores Riley Rose (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Sabastian Gordon (Old Tappan, N.J.) all were effective in their individual performances.
 
At the halfway point of the meet, the top of the team standings saw Air Force holding just a 0.95-point advantage over Navy, 200.95-200.00. Realizing that every routine and every tenth of a point could decide the ultimate winner, the Mids came out on the floor exercise and crushed their previous season-high in the event by 1.35 points as all five gymnasts finished in the top-eight. Van Loo showcased his senior leadership and posted a 14.35 score. Navy's stronghold of the leaderboard picked up with Syam Buradagunta (Jr., Westborough, Mass.), who tied for fourth place with a 13.8. This started a run of four straight Mids as Matthew Rosendahl (Jr., Upperco, Md.), Ian Dinmore (Jr., Odenton, Md.) and Aaron Stein (Fr., Houston, Texas) finished consecutively in sixth, seventh and eighth place with scores of 13.7, 13.6 and 13.55, respectively.
 
Faced with its weakest scoring event, the pommel horse, next, Navy gymnasts turned in three of the top-eight scores on Friday led by Drake's 13.15 effort that ranked fourth overall. The junior pairing of Buradagunta and Ronan McQuillan (Katy, Texas) were next up for the Mids as they recorded matching 12.75 scores.
 
Leading Air Force by just 0.15 points with one apparatus left for each team, the rings for Navy and the pommel horse for Air Force, the routine-for-routine battle played out over the final rotation. The Falcons rode an event-best score on the pommel horse by Patrick Hoopes and two other top-six performances to keep the pressure on the Mids. Up for the challenge, all five Navy gymnasts placed in the top-11 with Drake posting a dominant 13.8 score. Engelke posted the second-best score for Navy with a 13.1 on the rings. Stein and Rose finished back-to-back in sixth and seventh with respective marks of 13.0 and 12.7. Gordon just missed the top-10 with his effort as he tied for 11th with a 12.6 score. As the Mids hit five-for-five on the rings, the Falcons were unable to make up their deficit on the pommel horse. In fact, Navy added 1.15 points to their margin to take the title, 396.80-395.50.
 
Navy is slated to have two gymnasts in all six of the event finals on Saturday. First touch for the event finals is set for 1 p.m. at Blake Arena.
 
Event Finalists
FX – Van Loo, Buradagunta
PH – Drake, McQuillan
R – Drake, Engelke
VT – Van Loo, Drake
PB – Champagne, Drake
HB – Gambatese, Engelke