ANNAPOLIS, Md. - All the work that has been put in throughout the year for the Navy gymnastics program will come to a head on the national scene this weekend with competition at the 2024 NCAA Championships in Columbus, Ohio. Hosted by Ohio State in the Buckeyes' Covelli Center, the two-day event will begin on Friday afternoon at 1 p.m. with the first of two qualifying sessions before concluding on Saturday night with the team and event finals. Seeded ninth in the 12-team field, Navy comes into the weekend on a hot streak as its season-best score has improved in three straight events, including a score of 401.45 less than two weeks ago as the Mids won their sixth consecutive ECAC conference title. 

Over seven regular season meets and two postseason tilts, Navy has posted a national qualifying average (NQA) of 397.300 to earn the number nine seed and a spot in the first session of Friday's qualifying competition. Navy will be matched up with No. 1 Stanford (417.025 NQA), No. 4 Illinois (411.813), No. 5 Nebraska (411.600), No. 8 California (399.388) and No. 12 Greenville (392.888). The top-three finishing teams from each Friday's two qualifying sessions (1 p.m. and 7 p.m.) and the top-three all-around competitors not on one of the qualifying teams from each session, plus the top-three individuals on each event not already qualified on a team or as an all-arounder will compete again on Saturday night in the championship finals starting at 6 p.m. This is the eighth consecutive time that Navy will be participating in the national championship event (the 2020 championship was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic). 

Ohio State and the NCAA will be providing live stats and video throughout the two-day event. NCAA.com will host standalone coverage of each apparatus on Friday so fans will need to toggle between separate webpages to follow along. On Saturday for the team and event finals, a full program with wrap-around coverage will stream over NCAA.com; the individual apparatus cams will also be available on Saturday.

Navy under Kip Simons at the NCAA Championship 
Since taking over the program prior to the 2016 season, Simons and Navy Men's Gymnastics have been making waves on the national scene each and every year. In his first season at the helm, the Mids earned just the second-ever berth in the NCAA Championship in program history, the first and only prior berth was in 2009.
    2016: Navy finished 12th of 12 teams
    2017: Navy finished 11th of 12 teams
    2018: Navy finished 11th of 12 teams
    2019: Navy finished 10th of 12 teams
    2020: NCAA Championships cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic; Mids were 5th in the team point standings at time of cancellation
    2021: Navy finished 11th of 12 teams
    2022: Navy finished 7th of 12 teams
    2023: Navy finished 10th of 12 teams

NMG on Day 2 of the NCAAs
Under Simons' guidance, Navy has had 35 different Midshipmen advance from the qualifying meet and showcase their talents in the Championship Finals over 43 separate events ...
    2016: Jonny Tang (AA), Connor Gonzales (R) and Eric Poletti (R)
    2017: Jonny Tang (AA), Lucas Beltran (FX, VT)
    2018: David Toussaint (PH), Lucas Beltran (VT), Frank Bradley (VT), Trevor North (PB)
    2019: David Toussaint (FX), Dan Clark (PH), Ryan Orce (PB) and Ryan McVay (HB)
    2021: Ryan McVay (AA), David Toussaint (FX, PH), Josh Williams (FX, R), Jake Carlson (PH), Connor Van Loo (VT) and Giovanni Gambatese (HB)
    2022: Alexander Brown (R), Syam Buradagunta (PH, VT, HB), Cash Buske (R, HB), Isaiah Drake (AA), Giovanni Gambatese (HB), Caleb Hickey (FX), Ronan McQuillan (PH), Connor Van Loo (FX, VT) and Josh Williams (FX, R)
    2023: Syam Buradagunta (FX), William Champagne (PB), Ian Dinmore (FX), Isaiah Drake (AA), Caleb Hickey (HB), Matthew Rosendahl (FX) and Connor Van Loo (VT)

Navy at the 2023 NCAA Championship: April 14-15 at Penn State
Competing in its seventh consecutive NCAA Championship, the Navy gymnastics team turned in a solid result in Friday afternoon's NCAA Qualifying Meet at Penn State University. The ninth-seeded Mids were led by seven individual gymnasts qualifying for Saturday's NCAA Championship Finals in the action at Rec Hall. Competing in the first session of the qualifying meet against No. 1 Stanford, No. 4 Illinois, No. 5 Nebraska, No. 8 Air Force and No. 12 Army, Navy posted a team score of 392.491 to rank fifth in the field.
 
The final standings from the first session saw the seeding hold true as the Cardinal turned a dominant score of 421.888 to place first in the group. Nebraska and Illinois garnered the final two team qualifying positions in Saturday's Championship Finals with respective scores of 410.124 and 405.524. Air Force held off Navy and came in fourth with a 399.222 effort. Army rounded out the field of six in the afternoon session with a 384.523 result. 

When combined with the scores from the evening session, Navy finished ranked 10th overall. The final leaderboard for session two saw Oklahoma (415.491), Penn State (415.290) and Michigan (413.992) advance to Saturday's team championship. The rest of the second session saw Ohio State rank fourth with a 404.492 score ahead of California and Springfield, who posted scores of 395.055 and 381.324, respectively.
 
As a team, Navy scored 67.266 points on the floor exercise, 62.399 on the pommel horse, 65.233 on the rings, 69.030 on the vault, 66.198 on the parallel bars and 62.365 on the high bar. 

The Navy men's gymnastics team had a night for the record books on Saturday at the 2023 NCAA Championships as the duo of Syam Buradagunta and Isaiah Drake garnered NCAA Championship All-American honors for the first time 1973 when Eric Swanson finished on the podium for the pommel horse. Buradagunta earned his chance in the spotlight for his efforts on the floor exercise, while Drake proved his prowess across all six apparatus in the all-around competition.

Competing in the all-around in the NCAA Championship Finals for the second time in his young career, Drake was hitting on all cylinders on Saturday night. Starting on the rings, the sophomore turned in the 19th-best score of 13.733. He followed that up with a 14.266 score on the vault that ranked 27th. Staying consistent throughout his all-around quest, Drake posted a 13.866 on the parallel bars, that was good for 22nd in the field. He improved his placement one spot on the ensuing apparatus, the high bar as he finished 21st with a 13.366. Building up a strong scoring foundation with just two events to go, Drake nailed his floor exercise routine and registered his second-best score of the evening with a 14.166 that tied for 14th among 42 participants. With an All-American award within his reach, he closed out his day with 11.866 points on the pommel horse. Those final decimal points proved important as he held onto the final spot on the podium and placed eighth overall with a cumulative score of 81.263. A testament to how close the fight for All-American was on Saturday night, fifth (Penn State's Matt Cormier) through ninth place (Air Force's Oliver Zavel) were separated by just 1.3 points.
 
Buradagunta's quest for All-American glory also came with considerable anxiety as he performed his floor exercise routine to begin the fourth rotation. At the time, his score of 14.333 ranked fourth overall, but the scoreboard watching immediately kicked in as Stanford, Illinois and Michigan, all squads that eventually finished in the top-three of the team standings, were next up. With each ensuing rotation, the scoreboard saw Stanford's Nick Kuebler jump into first place on the fourth rotation before Illinois' Connor McCool edged Buradagunta by 0.2 points in the fifth turn. Standing sixth with just Michigan left to go, only the Wolverines' Fred Richard and Landon Blixt posted better scores and Buradagunta ended up an All-American in eighth place.

Team Comparisons
Here is a breakdown of the six teams in session one …

	Stanford	Illinois	Nebraska	California	Navy	Greenville
Seeding	1	4	5	8	9	12
Nat'l Q. Average	417.025	411.813	411.600	399.388	397.300	392.888
Team-High Score	422.700	416.150	418.200	405.600	401.450	395.700

Mids in the Top-25
Navy gymnasts occupy four top-25 spots in the individual national leaderboards for event rankings ... All-American accolades will be bestowed upon gymnasts that finish in the top-eight of Saturday's all-around and event finals ... (NQA - National Qualifying Average)
    Floor Exercise: Syam Buradagunta (12th, NQA: 13.950 ... High: 14.250)  
    Pommel Horse: Ronan McQuillan (20th, NQA: 13.613 ... High: 14.200)
    Vault: Matthew Petros (7th, NQA: 14.625 ... High: 14.800)
    Parallel Bars: Matthew Petros (9th, NQA: 14.000 ... High: 14.050)

Last Time Out: at ECAC Championship in Springfield, Massachusetts, April 6
A dominant second half of the meet and season-highs across the board led the Navy men's gymnastics team to its sixth straight ECAC Championship. Coming in with just a 2.74-point advantage in scoring average over Springfield and 3.07 points over Greenville, Navy turned in its best team scoring performance of the season with a 401.45-point output on Saturday. The Mids were firing on all cylinders with conference glory on the line at Springfield's Blake Arena as they surpassed their season averages on five events and cruised past the field by 8.45 points. Four individual event winners and six additional top-three results aided Navy's effort in clinching the conference crown.

The final scoreboard had Navy first with 401.45 points and Greenville second at 393.00. Springfield rounded out the podium in third place less than a point back at 392.05. The second half of the leaderboard was Army in fourth at 390.90, William & Mary in fifth at 387.80 and Simpson in sixth with 360.95 points.
 
Navy received contributions from across its roster as Midshipmen gymnasts won individual titles on three separate apparatuses and a fourth with Isaiah Drake's all-around gold. Riley Rose had a breakthrough conference championship as he earned his first career ECAC individual titles as he won the rings by 0.20 points before following up his effort with another gold, three events later on the high bar. The third recipient of All-ECAC gold on Saturday was Matthew Petros, who out-paced the field on the parallel bars by 0.25 points.

As a team, Navy scored 67.9 points on the floor exercise, 64.45 on the pommel horse, 64.95 on the rings, 71.5 on the vault, 67.3 on the parallel bars and 65.35 on the high bar. Those scores surpassed five of Navy's season averages: 65.65 (FX), 63.03 (R), 70.02 (VT), 65.62 (PB) and 64.20 (HB).