ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy gymnastics team's season culminates this weekend at the 2023 NCAA Gymnastics Championship in State College, Pennsylvania. Hosted by Penn State at the Nittany Lions' Rec Hall facility, the two-day competition with national glory on the line begins on Friday afternoon with the Qualifying Meet for the Mids and concludes on Saturday night with the team and event finals. Navy comes in with momentum as the Mids have claimed recent postseason titles at the USAG and ECAC Championships and will be seeded ninth in the competition. Throughout the regular season and both postseason meets, Navy has put together a national qualifying average of 394.575 with a season-high score of 396.800. The action this weekend begins at 1 p.m. on Friday with the first session of the NCAA Championship Qualifying Meet. The Mids will be matched up against No. 1 Stanford (416.888 NQA), No. 4 Illinois (407.050), No. 5 Nebraska (406.538), No. 8 Air Force (396.700) and No. 12 Army (387.525) in the first pod.

The top-three finishing teams from each Friday's two qualifying sessions, 1 p.m. and 7 p.m., and the top-three all-around competitors not on one of the qualifying teams from each session, plus the top-three individuals on each event not already qualified on a team or as an all-arounder will compete again on Saturday night in the championship finals starting at 6 p.m. This is the seventh consecutive time that Navy will be participating in the national championship event (the 2020 championship was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic). 

Penn State and the NCAA will be providing live stats and video throughout the two-day event. NCAA.com will host standalone coverage of each apparatus on Friday so fans will need to toggle between separate webpages to follow along. On Saturday for the team and event finals, a full program with wrap-around coverage will stream over NCAA.com; the individual apparatus cams will also be available on Saturday.

Navy under Kip Simons at the NCAA Championship 
Since taking over the program prior to the 2016 season, Simons and Navy Men's Gymnastics have been making waves on the national scene each and every year. In his first season at the helm, the Mids earned just the second-ever berth in the NCAA Championship in program history, the first and only prior berth was in 2009.
    2016: Navy finished 12th of 12 teams
    2017: Navy finished 11th of 12 teams
    2018: Navy finished 11th of 12 teams
    2019: Navy finished 10th of 12 teams
    2020: NCAA Championships cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic; Mids were 5th in the team point standings at time of cancellation
    2021: Navy finished 11th of 12 teams
    2022: Navy finished 7th of 12 teams

NMG on Day 2 of the NCAAs
Under Simons' guidance, Navy has had 20 different Midshipmen advance from the qualifying meet and showcase their talents in the Championship Finals over 36 separate events ...
    2016: Jonny Tang (AA), Connor Gonzales (R) and Eric Poletti (R)
    2017: Jonny Tang (AA), Lucas Beltran (FX, VT)
    2018: David Toussaint (PH), Lucas Beltran (VT), Frank Bradley (VT), Trevor North (PB) advanced
    2019: David Toussaint (FX), Dan Clark (PH), Ryan Orce (PB) and Ryan McVay (HB) advanced
    2021: Ryan McVay (AA), David Toussaint (FX, PH), Josh Williams (FX, R), Jake Carlson (PH), Connor Van Loo (VT) and Giovanni Gambatese (HB)
    2022: Alexander Brown (R), Syam Buradagunta (PH, VT, HB), Cash Buske (R, HB), Isaiah Drake (AA), Giovanni Gambatese (HB), Caleb Hickey (FX), Ronan McQuillan (PH), Connor Van Loo (FX, VT) and Josh Williams (FX, R)

Navy at the 2022 NCAA Championship: April 15-16 at University of Oklahoma
Competing in its sixth consecutive NCAA Championship, the Navy gymnastics team turned in its best-ever result as the Mids placed fourth in the evening session and seventh overall amongst the 12-team national field at the University of Oklahoma. Aiming to score one of the top-three positions in Friday's second session of qualifying meet action, the Mids scored 399.023 points to finish behind session-winner No. 3 Michigan, runner-up No. 6 Ohio State and the host No. 2 Oklahoma squad. Navy's effort was spearheaded from throughout its roster as nine individuals qualified for Saturday's event finals, including five of whom will be competing in multiple finals on Saturday: Syam Buradagunta, Cash Buske, Isaiah Drake, Connor Van Loo, Josh Williams.
 
The standings from the second session saw the Wolverines place first with 412.890 points, the Buckeyes second with 407.956 points and the Sooners third at 407.290. Rounding out the standings well behind the Mids were the Air Force Falcons with 384.822 points and the Army Black Knights, who posted a score of 376.691.
 
Combined with the scores of the first session, Navy ranked seventh overall trailing Stanford (426.325), Nebraska (411.388) and Illinois (406.691) from session one. The Mids outscored Penn State (397.889), California (394.824) and Springfield (380.523).
 
As a team, Navy scored 67.065 points on the floor exercise, 64.665 on the pommel horse, 66.565 on the rings, 70.332 on the vault, 65.632 on the parallel bars and 64.764 on the high bar. The Mids' pommel horse result was third-best in the session trailing just Michigan (66.498) and Ohio State (65.030). While ranking fourth, Navy's vault score was just 0.7 points shy of Ohio State's first-place 71.032.

The following night, Navy rounded out its most successful trip to the NCAA Championships in program history with nine Midshipmen competing in the event finals. Aiming to attain All-American status, Josh Williams and Giovanni Gambatese each challenged for one of the valued top-eight positions on the rings and high bar, respectively and came within fractions of a point of such goals. Williams finished tenth, 0.067 points out of eighth, while Gambatese was 0.234 points out of a four-way tie for seventh place.

Team Comparisons
Here is a breakdown of the six teams in session one …

	Stanford	Illinois	Nebraska	Air Force	Navy	Army
Seeding	1	4	5	8	9	12
Nat'l Q. Average	416.888	407.050	406.538	396.700	394.575	387.525
Team-High Score	423.550	411.550	417.650	397.650	396.800	396.650

Mids in the Top-25
Navy gymnasts occupy 12 top-20 spots in the individual leaderboards for event rankings ... All-American accolades will be bestowed upon gymnasts that finish in the top-eight of Saturday's all-around and event finals ... (NQA - National Qualifying Average)
    Floor Exercise: Connor Van Loo (12th, NQA: 14.050 ... High: 14.350)
        Syam Buradagunta (16th, NQA: 13.938 ... High: 14.150)    
    Pommel Horse: Ronan McQuillan (9th, NQA: 13.775 ... High: 14.450)
    Rings: Isaiah Drake (17th, NQA: 13.663 ... High: 14.000)
    Parallel Bars: Isaiah Drake (21st, NQA: 13.638 ... High: 13.950)
    High Bar: Giovanni Gambatese (23rd, NQA: 13.300 ... High: 13.600)

Last Time Out ECAC Championship, April 1
The Navy gymnastics team continued its successful run of postseason action on Saturday with a strong performance on its way to a fifth straight ECAC Championship title. Hosting a field of six talented conference foes, No. 9 Navy controlled the contest and rolled to a 7.7-point victory over its nearest rival No. 12 Springfield. Four event individual winners and five of the top-six scores on the high bar aided the Mids to the win in front of a loud and boisterous crowd at the Halsey Field House Gymnastics Facility.
 
The final scoreboard had Navy first with 394.45 and Springfield College second at 386.75. William & Mary rounded out the podium in third place with 383.55 points. The second half of the leaderboard was Army in fourth at 377.65, Greenville in fifth at 376.25 and Simpson in sixth with 346.65 points.
 
Navy received contributions from across its roster as Midshipmen gymnasts won individual titles in four of the six events. Isaiah Drake led the hosts as he finished atop the podium for his efforts on the floor exercise, parallel bars and all-around competition. Junior Ronan McQuillan and senior team captain Giovanni Gambatese also captured gold on the pommel horse and high bar, respectively.

As a team, Navy scored 68.4 points on the floor exercise, 63.4 on the pommel horse, 63.7 on the rings, 69.3 on the vault, 65.9 on the parallel bars and 64.95 on the high bar.