COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Coming in as the defending champions of the USAG Collegiate Championship, Navy's bid to repeat was short-circuited by an Army squad that started out hot and never let up as the Black Knights secured the team title on Friday. Strong in moments, but inconsistent in others, the Mids registered a combined team score of 310.75 that placed them third among the field of seven opponents. The Black Knights finished first with 313.05 points in the meet that was hosted by Air Force at Cadet West Gym. The Greenville Panthers came in runner-up with 311.85 points.

The rest of the standings saw Springfield College finish 0.4 points behind Navy in fourth at 310.35 with William & Mary rounding out the top five with 308.55 points. Air Force and Simpson College placed sixth and seventh overall with respective scores of 306.75 and 302.40.

The USAG Collegiate Championship dates back to 1983 and 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-eight scorers on each apparatus, with a maximum of two gymnasts per team will advance to Saturday's individual event finals.

Jonah Soltz (Tacoma, Wash.) highlighted the Mids' individual effort on Friday as the sophomore came in first in the all-around competition to collect his first-ever USAG title. Additionally, he will advance into a pair of event finals on Saturday. Brian Solomon (Jr., Lynnfield, Mass.) also medaled in the all-around competition as he placed fourth overall, 0.05 points out of third place. Similar to Soltz his performance on Friday qualified him for two event finals.

Additionally, three other Navy gymnasts, Matthew Petros (Sr., Broadview Heights, Ohio), Danilo Viciana (Sr., Marietta, Ga.) and Daniel Gurevich (Jr., Frisco, Texas) will continue onto Saturday's event finals after placing among the top four in their respective events on Friday; Petros on the vault and high bar and Viciana and Gurevich on the floor exercise. Petros will be the top seed for the vault finals, while Viciana will be the same for the floor.

As a team, Navy scored 51.8 points on the floor exercise, 50.95 on the pommel horse, 50.85 on the rings, 55.2 on the vault, 51.9 on the parallel bars and 50.05 on the high bar.

"We definitely had some highlights with our first day of action at the USAGs," remarked assistant coach Craig Holt. "Our vault and p-bars lineups were outstanding and posted season-high scores, but ultimately, we had too many major mistakes and those cost us valuable points in the final standings.

"We extremely proud of Jonah's all-around title. Both him and Brian did great jobs representing us in the all-around. They'll each have two more times to finish on the podium in tomorrow's event finals."

Navy's team captain, Viciana continued the excellent second half to his senior season as he ranked first among 29 gymnasts competing on the floor exercise on Friday. The senior posted a score of 13.65 that edged Springfield's Carl Jacob Soederqvist by 0.05 points for first place. Viciana netted 8.75 points for his execution of his routine that had a 4.9-point start value. After Viciana and Soederqvist in the standings was Gurevich, who recorded a score of 13.5 to place third overall.

On the ensuing apparatus, the pommel horse, Soltz was the lone Midshipman to place among the top ten as he garnered 13.25 points for his effort to rank ninth in the standings. Petros and Gurevich finished just outside the top ten as they tied for 12th place with identical 13.15 scores.

Navy's turn on the rings was also tough for the Mids as Solomon was the lone gymnast to finish in the top ten as he recorded a score of 13.3 that ranked fifth overall. His effort will advance him into Saturday's event finals.

The spread out, competitive nature of Friday's meet was illustrated by the standings for the vault as five different gymnasts from five different schools made up the top five. Petros made sure Navy was prominently a part of that statement as he dominated the field with a season-best 14.4 score. His result was 0.35 points better than his next closest competitor, Braxton Jones from Simpson College. Soltz will give Navy two entrants in Saturday's event finals as he turned in the seventh-best score on the apparatus with a 13.8.

An up-and-down event for most schools on Friday, Navy was solid throughout its four-man lineup on the parallel bars and posted a season-best score of 51.9. Solomon was the leader of the p-bars quartet as he was one of three gymnasts to tie for seventh place with matching 13.15 scores. Soltz just missed qualifying for action on Saturday on the parallel bars as he placed tenth at 13.05.

Petros earned his second berth into the event finals courtesy of his strong high bar effort. Performing the most difficult routine in the entire field with a 4.7-point start value, the senior had fairly clean execution and garnered 8.15 points for a cumulative score of 12.95 that placed him fourth overall. Soltz also qualified for his second event final from his high bar performance. The sophomore ended in a three-way tie with Army's Jake Prabhakaran and Cash Johnston for seventh place with a score of 12.7.

Soltz collected the all-around title with a career-high score of 78.55. He garnered 12.8 points on the floor exercise, 13.25 on the pommel horse, 12.95 on the rings, 13.8 on the vault, 13.05 on the parallel bars and 12.7 on the high bar.

In an extremely crowded top of the leaderboard for the all-around, Solomon finished fourth overall with a combined score of 77.00. He ended up just 1.55 points behind Soltz, 0.75 behind Greenville's Kyler Hinson (77.75) and 0.05 shy of William & Mary's Luke Tully (77.05). Solomon tallied 11.7 points from his floor exercise routine, 12.85 from the pommel horse, 13.3 from the rings, 13.45 from the vault, 13.15 from the parallel bars and 12.55 from the high bar.
 
The quintet of Soltz, Solomon, Petros, Viciana and Gurevich will all be in action on Saturday afternoon in the event finals of the USAG Collegiate Championship. First touch is set for 2 p.m.

    Event Finalists
    FX: Viciana, Gurevich
    R: Solomon
    VT: Petros, Soltz
    PB: Solomon
    HB: Petros, Soltz