FRISCO, Texas – Taking on a field of service academy rivals at the 2024 All-Academy Championship, the No. 8 Navy gymnastics team placed second, one spot behind No. 9 Air Force and one spot ahead of No. 12 Army. At the completion of 30 routines in the tri-meet at The Ford Center at The Star on Saturday night, the Falcons (2-3) registered 397.25 points, while the Mids (3-1) tallied 390.1 points to out-pace the Black Knights (1-5), who were 7.6 points back at 382.5.

Juniors William Champagne (Douglas, Mass.) and Vishal Mandava (Cypress, Texas) led Navy's individual efforts on Saturday night as they each placed first, Champagne on the rings and Mandava on the high bar. Additionally, Syam Buradagunta (Sr., Westborough, Mass.) and Matthew Petros (So., Broadview Heights, Ohio) finished second respectively on the floor exercise and parallel bars.

As a team, Navy scored 65.55 points on the floor exercise, 65.15 on the pommel horse, 61.35 on the rings, 68.4 on the vault, 66.95 on the parallel bars and 62.7 on the high bar.

"I was proud of the guys tonight, even though we had more mistakes than we could afford if we wanted to win the meet," remarked head coach Kip Simons.
"We kept getting knocked down and we got back up and kept punching all the way through the end."

The Mids' action on the floor exercise was highlighted by a pair of top-five results. Buradagunta turned in his second-best score of 2024 as he was awarded a 14.2 on Saturday night to place second overall. Competing in his first All-Academy Championship, Colby Prince (So., Lithia, Fla.) also recorded his second-best score of the season as he netted Navy 13.6 points to tie for fifth place.

A similar outcome occurred on the pommel horse with two Mids in the top-five. The duo of Petros and Ronan McQuillan (Sr., Katy, Texas) finished back-to-back in fourth and fifth place, respectively with scores of 13.5 and 13.4. Petros' performance was the second-best in his career on the apparatus.

Champagne collected the first of Navy's two wins in Frisco as he edged out Air Force's Garrett Braunton, 13.15 to 13.1 on the rings. That score set a career-high for Champagne, who is in his first season competing on the rings. Erik Engelke (Sr., Henrico, Va.) continued the Mids' run of two gymnasts in the top-five as he posted a score of 12.85 to place fourth in the field.

On the ensuing event, the vault, Champagne followed up his win with a 14.1 score that tied for third overall with Army's Nick Lester. Buradagunta recorded Navy's second-best score on the vault as his 13.75 ranked eighth.

Petros and Champagne kept their string of highly-effective performances going on the parallel bars with two more top-five results. Petros challenged Air Force's Erich Upton for the win and came within 0.05 points of the victory with a final 14.0 to 13.95 margin. Champagne backed up his teammate with a score of 13.6, that was fifth-best in the field and his personal-best this season.

Mandava rounded out the Mids' night with a stellar routine on the high bar. At the completion of his program he placed first with a career-high 13.15 score. Riley Rose (Jr., Las Vegas, Nev.) provided strong support for his classmate with a score of 12.85, that tied for third overall with Army's Tucker Blanchard. Caleb Hickey (Sr., Carthage, N.C.) finished just 0.1 out of the top-five as he tied for sixth with a 12.6 effort.

"We'll get back home and get to work on Monday," said Simons in closing. "We're coming up on a three-week break from competition and will use that to get things right as we head into the postseason late into March."

Navy will step away from the competitive floor for the remainder of February before rounding out its regular season with head-to-head road meets at Oklahoma on March 9 and William & Mary on March 16.