ANNAPOLIS, Md. – In the final meet before next Saturday's Army-Navy Star competition, the No. 8 Navy men's gymnastics team rolled to a 396.5-370.9 victory over No. 15 William & Mary on Saturday afternoon. The Mids (1-0) were strong from the start in the head-to-head meet versus the Tribe (0-1) at the Halsey Field House Gymnastics Facility as they led by 4.9 points after the floor exercise discipline and never looked back, winning all six events and seeing Navy gymnasts finish first overall in each event, as well.

Individually, Isaiah Drake (Jr., Los Angeles, Calif.) and Matthew Petros (So., Broadview Heights, Ohio) led the Mids' effort with two event wins each, Drake on the floor exercise and vault and Petros on the parallel bars and high bar. Their wins book-ended first place results by Ronan McQuillan (Sr., Katy, Texas) on the pommel horse and William Champagne (Jr., Douglas, Mass.) on the rings.

As a team, Navy scored 66.25 points on the floor exercise, 64.65 on the pommel horse, 63.95 on the rings, 69.55 on the vault, 67.05 on the parallel bars and 65.05 on the high bar. Their 396.5 total is the Mids' best score of the young 2024 season.

"The team was very good today at home as we put the final preparations on for the big competition against Army next Saturday," remarked head coach Kip Simons. "Today, we tested our depth chart on each event and we have the right team ready to go for next weekend."

Beginning the meet on the floor exercise, Navy dominated the top of the leaderboard with a clean sweep of the top-four positions. Performing the most difficult routine of the event with a 5.3 start score, Drake earned an 8.35 execution mark from the judges for an overall score of 13.75 that cleared his teammate Matthew Rosendahl (Sr., Upperco, Md.) by .3 points, as Rosendahl posted a 13.45 on Saturday. Underclass Midshipmen grabbed the next two spots as Daniel Gurevich (Fr., Frisco, Texas) and Danilo Viciana (So., Marietta, Ga.) went back-to-back with respective scores of 13.35 and 13.1.

Navy repeated its supremacy with a sweep of the top-four positions on the ensuing apparatus, the pommel horse. On the strength of the best execution score of the rotation with an 8.75 mark, McQuillan's 5.1 difficulty-level routine earned him gold with a combined score of 13.85. Fellow senior Syam Buradagunta (Westborough, Mass.) finished right behind McQuillan with a respective 13.65 effort. Gurevich mirrored his third-place result for the second straight event as he posted a 13.15 for his first-ever collegiate pommel horse routine. Petros concluded the run of Mids in the top-four with a 12.85 score.

Navy continued its stronghold on the top of the leaderboard with the top-three performances on the rings. Depth and consistency shown through during the event as the top-three Mids were separated by just 0.05 points. Champagne earned top-honors with a 12.95 score before Julian Galvez (Fr., Burtonsville, Md.) and Erik Engelke (Sr., Henrico, Va.) tied for second with matching 12.9 scores.

Drake picked up his second victory of the meet as he aced his vault with a score of 14.3 that cleared his nearest competitor William & Mary's Sam Lee by 0.1 points. Champagne and Petros continued their strong day as the duo tied for third place with 14.05 efforts.

After coming close to picking up his first win of the day on the pommel horse and vault, Petros left nothing up for debate on the parallel bars as he crushed the field with an 8.95 execution score on his 5.0 difficulty routine for a 14.05 score. All three values were the best for the apparatus on Saturday. After Lee came in second place, 0.45 points back at 13.6, Caleb Hickey (Sr., Carthage, N.C.) and Vishal Mandava (Jr., Cypress, Texas) kicked off a run of four straight Mids in positions three through six with respective scores of 13.55 and 13.3. The final two scorers for Navy were Champagne with a 13.1 and Viciana with a 13.05 result.

Petros' standout day came to a close on the high bar as he lapped the field by 0.3 points as he once again turned in the highest execution score (8.75), degree of difficulty (4.6) and overall score with a 13.45 (+0.1 stick) that surpassed his teammates Buradagunta and Hickey, who tied for second with identical 13.15s. Mandava posted his second straight four-place effort with a 13.0 score.

"It's always good to get a win against a conference rival," said Simons in closing. "We'll enjoy this victory, but we have already switched our focus to the Star Meet next Saturday. It's clear that our game plan since August is working."

Navy will close out the home portion of its season next Saturday with service academy glory on the line with the 2024 Army-Navy Star Meet. First touch between the Mids and Black Knights is set for 2 p.m. at the Halsey Field House Gymnastics Facility.