ANNAPOLIS, Md. – The No. 7 Navy men's gymnastics team kicked off the home portion of its 2024 schedule on Saturday with its annual Navy Open. Taking on a pair of Big Ten powers in No. 5 Penn State and No. 6 Ohio State, as well as ECAC rivals No. 11 Springfield and No. 14 William & Mary at the Halsey Field House Gymnastics Facility, the Mids passed the Nittany Lions and came in second overall to the Buckeyes with 391.25 points.
The entire leaderboard on Saturday consisted of Ohio State taking first with 397.30 points, 6.05 points ahead of Navy. Penn State earned the final spot on the podium with a third-place score of 385.20, 6.05 points behind Navy. The rest of the field saw Springfield finish fourth with 372.55 points, William & Mary post a score of 366.10 for fifth place and Temple, competing as a club team, net 335.65 points.
The Mids were led by individual wins by
Syam Buradagunta (Sr., Westborough, Mass.) on the floor exercise and
Isaiah Drake (Jr., Los Angeles, Calif.) on the parallel bars. Additionally, Drake finished second on the vault, third on the floor exercise and fourth on the rings, while Buradagunta placed fourth on the pommel horse.
Matthew Petros (So., Broadview Heights, Ohio) added two more top-six results with a fourth on the vault and sixth on the pommel horse.
As a team, Navy registered 65.05 points on the floor exercise, 64.05 on the pommel horse, 62.35 on the rings, 71.9 on the vault, 65.4 on the parallel bars and 62.5 on the high bar.
"Halsey was rocking this afternoon," exclaimed head coach Kip Simons. "The place was packed and our team showed up ready to compete.
"We had several small mistakes this afternoon, which is to be expected in January. The key to today's performance is that we never let a mistake turn into a disaster. Overall, this was another solid workday for this team. I'm very proud of who this group of guys have become. We've only had two meets so far and it's already been a memorable season for Navy Men's Gymnastics."
Navy's afternoon began on the floor exercise with four Midshipmen gymnasts ranking in the top-10. The Mids' second floor competitor,
Matthew Rosendahl (Sr., Upperco, Md.) got Navy's success rolling as he posted a 13.1 that was good for ninth overall. Making his collegiate debut,
Daniel Gurevich (Fr., Frisco, Texas) turned in 13.0 on his routine for Navy that tied for tenth in the field. Drake was next up and registered a score of 13.3 that saw him tie for third with Springfield's Dominic Ramalho and Penn State's Kacper Garnzarek. Buradagunta completed Navy's floor exercise effort with a stout 13.75 score that eventually cleared the entire field by 0.15 points; Ohio State's Kazuki Hayashi finished runner-up at 13.6.
On the ensuing event, the pommel horse, Navy's depth shown through with all five starters posting top-10 scores. Buradagunta paced the Mids with a fourth-place result at 13.5. Continuing the start strong to his career as a pommel horse competitor, Petros netted a sixth-place finish with a 13.3 score. The upperclass trio of
Erik Engelke (Sr., Henrico, Va.), Drake and
Ronan McQuillan (Sr., Katy, Texas) went back-to-back-to-back in positions eight through 10 with respective scores of 12.95, 12.9 and 12.85.
After its strong start, Navy gave up a bit of its standing on the rings rotation with just one gymnast posting a top-10 result as Penn State and Ohio State dominated the leaderboard in the other nine spots. Drake carried the flag for the Mids with a team-high 13.2 score that ranked fourth overall. Engelke recorded Navy's second-best score as he earned 12.5 points that was good for 12th place.
The Mids' highest scoring event on Saturday was the vault as they out-paced the opposition with 71.9 points; Ohio State was second at 71.75. Navy succeeded with its depth as its top-four scorers all placed among the top-13 gymnasts in the field. Drake led the way with a 14.8 vault that ranked second overall. Petros was 0.2 points back of his teammate in fourth place before
William Champagne (Jr., Douglas, Mass.) and Buradagunta were separated by 0.15 points in ties for 11th and 13th with scores of 14.35 and 14.2, respectively.
Drake finished atop the leaderboard on the parallel bars with 13.95 routine that mirrored Ohio State's Caden Spencer's performance. Coming off a win at last week's West Point Open on the parallel bars,
Caleb Hickey (Sr., Carthage, N.C.) earned Navy 13.35 points on Saturday to place ninth in the field. Petros was 0.1 points of his fellow Mid with a 13.25 that tied him for 11th best with Ramalho.
Similar to the rings, Big Ten gymnasts had a stronghold on the top-10 of the high bar with four Buckeyes and three Nittany Lions grabbing the first seven positions. After Springfield's Sam Kaplan broke that streak, Navy grabbed the next four placements with Buradagunta starting the run with a ninth-place 12.7 score. Hickey placed tenth at 12.55 before Drake and Engelke tied for 11th with matching 12.5 scores.
Competing as an all-arounder, Drake finished with 80.65 points for his efforts across all six disciplines on Saturday.
Navy will continue its homestand with a head-to-head meet versus William & Mary next Saturday at Halsey Field House. First touch is set for 2 p.m.
