INDIANOLA, Iowa – The reign of Navy Men's Gymnastics atop the podium at the ECAC Championship came to an end on Saturday as a few untimely miscues and a near perfect outing by Army saw the Black Knights hold off the Mids by 3.95 points, 313.5 to 309.55 at Simpson College's Cowles Fieldhouse. Winners of seven straight ECAC Championships, the Mids were on the hunt throughout as the Black Knights broke out to a 1.8-point lead after netting 54.3 points on the vault versus 52.5 for the Mids on the floor exercise during the first rotation of the meet.

At the conclusion of six rotations the final leaderboard saw Army in first with 313.5 points with Navy right behind in second at 309.55. The last team to make the medal podium was Greenville, who registered 307.3 points on Saturday. Springfield and William & Mary were edged off the podium as they finished within 1.3 points of the Panthers with respectively totals of 306.8 and 306.0. The host Simpson College Storm placed sixth with 299.6 points.

The Mids' individual effort was led by the duo of Isaiah Drake (Sr., Los Angeles, Calif.) and Matthew Petros (Jr., Broadview Heights, Ohio) who each collected a pair of ECAC Championship gold medals. Drake cemented his name in the record book as he won the all-around competition for the fourth time in four years. Additionally, he finished atop the standings for rings. Petros' two victories came on the pommel horse and parallel bars. The talented junior has now gone back-to-back ECAC Championships with titles on the p-bars.

As a team, Navy scored 52.5 points on the floor exercise, 49.5 on the pommel horse, 50.95 on the rings, 53.75 on the vault, 51.35 on the parallel bars and 51.5 on the high bar.

"I've got to give it to Army, they executed really well and were the better team today," remarked head coach Kip Simons. "I'm really proud of Isaiah for bringing home the all-around title for the fourth straight year. That's extremely hard to accomplish; I'm not sure there has ever been another athlete in this conference to have ever achieved that.

"We'll get home from this trip and begin recovery on Sunday. Come Monday, all of our focus turns to leaving it all out in the gym and preparing to represent Navy at the NCAA Championships."

Navy's day at Cowles Fieldhouse began on the floor exercise. The Mids were led in this rotation by its upperclass as seniors Isaiah Drake and William Champagne (Douglas, Mass.) netted their squad 26.65 combined points as Drake tied for sixth place with Springfield's William Wilson with a score of 13.4, while Champagne tied Greenville's Andres Esquivel-Garza for 10th with a 13.25 result. Benjamin Thurlow Lam (So., San Francisco, Calif.) gave Navy its third gymnast with a score of 13.0 or better as he garnered 13.0 points to place 15th overall.

A similar run of two Mids in the top ten occurred on the ensuing event, the pommel horse. Petros was the flag bearer for Navy as he turned in an extremely well-executed performance as he was judged with 9.05 points of execution for his 4.5-level of difficulty routine for a ultimate score of 13.55. Greenville's Matthew Roth matched that score and the duo ended up tied for first place. Daniel Gurevich (So., Frisco, Texas) was the second Mid in the top ten as he recorded 12.7 points for his pommel horse routine to rank 10th. Brian Solomon (So., Lynnfield, Mass.) barely missed the top ten as he placed 12th with a 12.45 result.

Another Navy gymnast finished on top of the standings for the next event, the rings, as Drake cruised to the win with a score of 13.45. The senior standout earned his final score with 9.25 points for his execution and 4.2 for his degree of difficulty. He surpassed Simpson's Alex Campbell by 0.25 points. Julian Galvez (So., Burtonsville, Md.) gave Navy two award winners on the podium as he tied Army's Conor Heary for sixth place with a 12.85 score.

Drake was the best finishing Mid on the vault as he came in eighth place at 13.85. In a tightly packed leaderboard, Solomon came in just 0.25 points back of Drake at 13.6, but was only able to rank 13th overall in the field.

With their backs against the wall in the team standings, Navy turned in a strong effort on the parallel bars as three of its gymnasts finished in the top four. Performing a 4.4-level routine, Petros earned his second goal medal of the meet with the best execution score of the event with a 9.2 grade from the judges for a cumulative score of 13.6, a personal-best for 2025 for the junior. Champagne earned a bronze medal for his effort of 13.3. Drake was 0.25 points back with a respective score of 13.05 that tied Donovan Diviney of Greenville for fourth place.

The Mids left it all out on the floor of Cowles Fieldhouse in one final attempt to come back versus the Black Knights. One of its highest scoring events during the regular season, Navy finished Saturday's competition on the high bar. The Mids' lineup performed admirably with two podium worthy results and three gymnasts in the top eight. Competing in his first ECAC Championship, Boone Washburn (Fr., Lake Oswego, Ore.) was locked in for his routine and earned a silver medal with a score of 13.1. He finished in a three-way tie with Army's Jake Prabhakaran and William & Mary's Luke Tully; the trio were just 0.05 points shy of Ricky Pizem's winning total of 13.15. The crowded top of the leaderboard extended out to two more positions as Riley Rose (Sr., Las Vegas, Nev.) tied Donovan Diviney for fifth place with matching 13.0 scores. Drake was edged out of medal contention as his 12.85 mark left him eighth in the standings.

In the all-around competition, Drake rolled to his fourth straight title as he held off Springfield's Kaleb Palacio by 1.75 points, 78.35 to 76.6. Drake's complete all-around scoring consisted of 13.4 points from the floor exercise, 11.75 from the pommel horse, 13.45 from the rings, 13.85 from the vault, 13.05 from the parallel bars and 12.85 from the high bar. Solomon nearly captured his second bronze medal in as many championship weekends for his all-around action as he came up just 0.2 points short of Army's Jaden Blank, who netted 75.95 points versus a 75.75 for Solomon. The sophomore's entire run of scoring on Saturday consisted of 12.85 points on the floor, 12.45 on the horse, 12.4 on the rings, 13.6 on the vault, 12.1 on the parallel bars and 12.35 on the high bar.

Navy will now turn its attention to the 2025 NCAA Championship hosted by the University of Michigan. The two-day event starts on Friday, April 18 with qualifying meet action before the top three teams from the two qualifying sessions advance to Saturday night's NCAA Championship Final. Additional gymnasts from non-advancing teams can qualify for the individual finals associated with the team championship