SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – One day after securing the team title at the 2023 USAG Collegiate Championship, the Navy men's gymnastics team got the chance to showcase some its best with seven members of the program competing at in the event finals of the two-day championship meet. Of the 12 routines that were performed by Midshipmen at Blake Arena on the campus of Springfield College on Saturday, 10 resulted in podium-worthy top-six outcomes, including four by Isaiah Drake (So., Los Angeles, Calif.).
 
The beginning of Navy's strong efforts on Saturday started with the floor exercise. Connor Van Loo (Sr., Freeland, Mich.) completed his 5.5-point level routine to the tune of an 8.4-point execution score for an overall 13.9 score that earned him a silver medal. Syam Buradagunta (Jr., Westborough, Mass.) backed up his teammate with a bronze medal courtesy of his 13.85 effort.
 
A similar silver-bronze outcome occurred on the ensuing the event, the pommel horse, with Drake and Ronan McQuillan (Jr., Katy, Texas) ending up near the top of the podium as the both performed 5.0-point level routines to near identical 13.25 and 13.2 final scores, respectively.
 
The first half of the event finals rounded out with Drake grabbing his second straight medal as he posted a score of 13.1, that tied him with Springfield's Sam Kaplan for third place. Drake was just 0.15 points shy of Springfield's David Hendron, who won the event with a 13.25.
 
Drake's third medal in as many events came on the vault as he augmented his 5.2-point level of difficulty with a 9.1-point execution score for an overall 14.3 mark to garner his second straight bronze medal. Once again, he finished only 0.15 points back of the gold medal winner, this time Erich Upton of Air Force.
 
Navy's sophomore class was well-represented on the podium for the parallel bars as William Champagne (Douglas, Mass.) and Drake finished back-to-back in fifth and sixth place with scores of 13.25 and 12.95, respectively. Champagne's cumulative total was improved by a 0.1-point stick bonus for his dismount at the end of the routine.
 
On the final event of the day, the high bar, Navy once again had two gymnasts earn their way onto the podium. Giovanni Gambatese (Sr., Pewaukee, Wisc.) collected the Mids' seventh top-three result on Saturday with a 13.6 performance that ranked him third overall. Erik Engelke garnered his first career All-USAG honor as his routine was judged to a 12.6 score that placed him sixth in the field.
 
After the meet, head coach Kip Simons was announced as the USAG Co-National Coach of the Year. He shared the honor with Springfield's Matthew Davis.
 
Navy will continue postseason action one week from today when the Mids host the 2023 ECAC Championship. The conference event is scheduled for a 2 p.m. first touch on Saturday, April 1 at Navy's Halsey Field House Gymnastics Facility.