ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The No. 9 Navy gymnastics team kicks off its run of postseason action this weekend with two days of competition at the 2024 USAG Collegiate Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Hosted by the United States Air Force Academy at Cadet West Gym, the Mids will first compete in the team event on Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET (2 p.m. MT-local) before the event finals are held on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. ET. Navy has won each of the past three USAG postseason competitions (2019, 2022, 2023) after finishing third three straight years, 2016 through 2018.

Navy will be one of six teams competing for the team title on Friday joining Air Force, Greenville, Simpson College, Springfield and William & Mary. The competition is open to Division I, II or III, four-year institutions with gymnastics as a varsity sport that provide two or less full scholarships, as well as the military academies. The top-four team in terms of average: Navy, Air Force, Greenville and Springfield are separated by just 2.6 points on the national leaderboard for team scoring.

The Virtius platform will be used to score the two-day competition. Air Force will host a general broadcast on it's YouTube channel, while all Navy routines will be streamed live on the Navy Gymnastics Facebook page.

Last Five USAG Collegiate Championships
2023 in Springfield): Navy 396.80 ... Air Force - 395.50 ... Springfield - 387.35 ... William & Mary - 382.20 ... Simpson - 360.50
2022 (in Annapolis): Navy 400.45 ... Air Force - 394.05 ... William & Mary - 381.05 ... Springfield - 375.95
2019 (in Annapolis): Navy - 400.7 ... Air Force - 384.8 ... William & Mary - 384.5 ... Army - 383.2 ... Springfield - 377.05
2018 (in Colorado Springs): Air Force - 396.4 ... William & Mary - 388.75 ... Navy - 388.7 ... Springfield - 371.9
2017 (in Everett, Wash.): Air Force - 396.95 ... William & Mary - 388.4 ... Navy - 379.7 ... Springfield - 373.85

Most Recent USAG Collegiate Championship: March 24 & March 25, 2023 in Springfield
In a meet that will go down in the record books, Navy and Air Force went toe-to-toe for 30 routines as part of the 2023 USAG Collegiate Championship at Springfield's Blake Arena. After the Falcons held a 0.95-point lead at the mid-way point of the competition and the Mids pulled ahead by 0.15 points through five rotations, a strong final turn on the rings by Navy helped the Mids clinch their third straight team title.
 
The final scoreboard showed Navy on top with a season-high 396.80 points, 1.3 to the positive of Air Force, who tallied 395.50 points. The host Springfield College Pride posted a score 387.35 to earn bronze, while William & Mary and Simpson rounded out the field with scores of 382.20 and 360.50, respectively.

Individually, Navy gymnasts recorded the top score on five of the six apparatus on Friday afternoon. Connor Van Loo aced his floor exercise routine to the tune of a 14.35 score, 0.25 better than his next closest competitor. Isaiah Drake was even more dominant on the rings as he cleared the field by 0.55 points with a 13.8 effort. Drake mirrored his first-place result on the vault with a 14.55, while William Champagne tied for top billing on the parallel bars courtesy of a career-best 14.0. Team captain Giovanni Gambatese was the fourth Mid to claim a spot on the top of the standings as he held off the field and turned in a score of 13.3 on the high bar. Including the above mentioned four gymnasts, Navy had a total of seven different competitors qualify for Saturday's event finals.
 
As a team, Navy scored 69.00 points on the floor exercise, 62.55 on the pommel horse, 65.25 on the rings, 71.05 on the vault, 66.20 on the parallel bars and 62.75 on the high bar.
 
This USAG Collegiate Championship title was the program's fifth in the history of competition that dates back to 1983. 

Of the 12 routines that were performed by Midshipmen at Blake Arena on the campus of Springfield College on Saturday as part of the event finals, 10 resulted in podium-worthy top-six outcomes, including four by Drake. Though no Mids came away with gold medals, Van Loo (FX) and Drake (PH) earned silvers for their runner-up efforts, while Syam Buradagunta (FX), Ronan McQuillan (PH), Drake (R), Drake (VT), Gambatese (HB) all garnered bronze medals.

Comparing the Squads
(2024 Four-Score Averages; the top-four teams are listed)

	Navy	Individual Leader	Air Force	Individual Leader	Greenville	Ind. Leader	Springfield	Ind. Leader
All-Around	394.617	--	393.067	G. Braunton, 78.00	392.850	--	392.017	S. Kaplan, 77.68
Floor Exercise	65.62	Buradagunta, 13.92	65.93	G. Braunton, 13.55	66.58	Z. Connelly, 13.95	65.77	E. Reichert, 13.42
Pommel Horse	65.48	McQuillan, 13.57	65.97	P. Hoopes, 14.70	64.83	L. Benas, 13.37	64.40	P. Cramer, 14.37
Rings	63.43	Drake, 13.32	64.47	G. Braunton, 13.37	63.67	S. Popov, 13.08	65.23	W. Wilson, 13.17
Vault	70.33	Petros, 14.50	68.88	G. Braunton, 14.15	71.33	L. Watterson, 14.77	70.12	D. Ramalho, 14.35
Parallel Bars	66.58	Petros, 13.98	65.68	O. Zavel, 13.80	66.17	J. Clapper, 13.55	64.90	S. Kaplan, 13.53
High Bar	64.38	Petros, 13.08	61.30	G. Braunton, 13.15	62.60	M. Pollock, 12.93	62.90	F. Kriedemann, 12.98

Last Time Out: at William & Mary on March 16
Looking to build momentum going into the postseason, the No. 9 Navy men's gymnastics team did just that with a season-high score of 396.75 in its road victory over No. 14 William & Mary on Saturday. The Mids took over the lead following the pommel horse turn and never looked back against the Tribe in an ECAC league match-up at Kaplan Arena. Navy's effort was bolstered by a clean sweep of event titles on all six apparatus, including a team-high three wins by sophomore Matthew Petros.

Petros was everywhere for Navy on Saturday afternoon as he raised his hand on four different events and came away with victories on the vault, parallel bars and high bar and a runner-up result on the pommel horse. He was joined on the top of the leaderboard by Brian Solomon, who earned his first collegiate victory with a first-place effort on the floor exercise before Ronan McQuillan held his spot as the Mids' anchor on the pommel horse team with another win. The fourth victor from Navy on Saturday was Isaiah Drake, who suited up for the first time since sustaining an injury in the lead-up to February's Army-Navy meet. Drake led all competitors on the rings.

As a team, Navy scored 64.95 points on the floor exercise, 65.7 on the pommel horse, 64.55 on the rings, 70.05 on the vault, 67.3 on the parallel bars and 64.2 on the high bar.