WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Navy men's gymnastics team finished its season-opening competition in strong fashion on Friday night as it rallied to secure second place at the 2024 West Point Open with a dramatic comeback over the host Army Black Knights. After an up-and-down start to its competition over the first three events at Army's Christl Arena, the Mids overtook the Black Knights down the stretch as part of a six-point swing over the high bar, floor exercise and pommel horse rotations.

At the completion of the team event, Penn State reigned supreme with 401.3 points, while Navy was 6.8 points back in second place with 394.5 points and Army claimed third at 388.65. Fellow ECAC rivals, Springfield College and William & Mary rounded out the field of varsity competitors with scores of 381.85 and 359.35, respectively.

As a team, Navy scored 66.15 points on the floor exercise, 68.55 on the pommel horse, 61.75 on the rings, 69.4 on the vault, 65.75 on the parallel bars and 62.9 on the high bar. The Mids' pommel horse score was the highest in over five years as the 2019 team posted a 68.25 on Jan. 26, 2019 at William & Mary.

Individually, nine different Midshipmen turned in results that qualified them for advancement into Saturday night's event finals. Syam Buradagunta (Sr., Westborough, Mass.) and Matthew Petros (So., Broadview Heights, Ohio) led the way with three qualifying performances each. Additionally, Isaiah Drake (Jr., Los Angeles, Calif.) earned his way into two Saturday night finals, while first-time collegiate competitors Colby Prince (So., Lithia, Fla.) and Benjamin Thurlow Lam (Fr., San Francisco, Calif.) each debuted with outstanding results to also advance to day two.

"What a way to kick off the season," remarked head coach Kip Simons. "Our guys had their backs against the wall late in the meet after a slow start and a few mistakes, but our pommel horse team stepped up on the final event to secure second place over Army.

"I'm so proud of these guys for finding a way to start the season strong against our conference rivals. The work of the preseason is paying off."

Navy's competition began on the rings on Friday night. Drake was the Mids' top performer on its opening rotation as he posted the fourth-highest score of 24 gymnasts with a 13.6. He was surrounded with three Penn State gymnasts ahead of him and one behind in fifth place. Erik Engelke (Sr., Henrico, Va.) backed up Drake's effort with the seventh-best score of the night at 12.9. Both Drake and Engelke will get a chance to compete again in Saturday night's event finals.

In a wide-open field for the vault that saw gymnasts from all five schools finish in the top-nine, Petros was the standout as he executed his 5.2-difficultly level vault with a 9.2 score for an event-best 14.4. He bested second-place Michael Artlip from Penn State by 0.1 points. Drake nearly qualified for the event finals as he was awarded 13.9 points to finish tenth overall among 26 gymnasts.

The third rotation saw Navy's parallel bar lineup begin to pick up the scoring pace with three gymnasts finishing in the top-five. Once again, Petros was the headliner of the field as he turned in a career-best score of 14.0 on the event. In 2023, he posted a 13.6 as a freshman. Caleb Hickey (Sr., Carthage, N.C.) helped the Mids sweep the top-two spots as he was 0.15 points back with a respective 13.85 score. The third Navy gymnast to post a top-five score was Danilo Viciana (So., Marietta, Ga.), who registered a career-high 13.6 effort. Viciana's previous career-high was a 13.2 as a plebe last season. All three Mids will be in action again on Saturday night.

Trailing Army in the fight for second place at the halfway mark, Navy's high bar team turned in a pair of top-four results led by the upperclass duo of Buradagunta and Drake. Buradagunta was extremely clean and netted 8.9 execution points for his 4.5-level routine to earn a 13.4 score. Drake was one position back in fourth place at 13.1.

Buradagunta improved on his third-place finish on the high bar during Navy's next rotation, the floor exercise. An All-American on the event at last year's NCAA Championship, Buradagunta nailed his routine and recorded a first-place score of 14.25 that bested the field by 0.25 points. Competing in a collegiate meet for the first time in his career Prince was equally as clean as his teammate as he posted a matching 8.75 execution score as part of his 13.65 total score that ranked third overall. In his collegiate debut event, as well, Thurlow Lam edged his way into the event finals with a tenth-place score of 13.3 on Friday night. Though not an event qualifier, Viciana was just 0.05 points back of Thurlow Lam in 12th place with a 13.25 score.

Moving ahead of the Black Knights into second place, but looking to clinch the runner-up trophy, the Mids knew they needed a strong effort on the normally low-scoring pommel horse event. Friday night's performance by their pommel horse lineup was anything but low-scoring as they surpassed the 68-point level for the first time in nearly five years. A trio of dominant routines by Ronan McQuillan (Sr., Katy, Texas), Buradagunta and Petros bolstered Navy's production. McQuillan and Buradagunta tied for top-billing in Navy's lineup with matching 14.2 scores that were second-best in the field. Competing on the pommel horse in a collegiate competition for the first time in his young career, Petros calmly posted a 13.95 that ranked fourth overall. Supporting his high-scoring teammates, freshman Brian Solomon (Lynnfield, Mass.) netted Navy 13.3 points in his first collegiate event, while William Champagne (Jr., Douglas, Mass.) posted a career-high 12.9 points of his own.

On the strength of that outstanding final rotation, Navy pulled away for 5.85-point margin over Army to secure second place.

The Mids will have nine competitors back in action on Saturday night as part of the event finals of the 2024 West Point Open. Buradagunta (FX, PH, HB), Drake (R, HB), Engelke (R), Hickey (PB), McQuillan (PH), Petros (PH, VT, PB), Prince (FX), Thurlow Lam (FX) and Viciana (PB) will all be vying for individual medals starting at 7 p.m. at Christl Arena.