ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Months of offseason and preseason preparation, a three-month regular season and a pair of postseason championships have brought the Navy men's gymnastics team to this weekend and the 2026 NCAA Championship. Hosted this year by the University of Illinois at the Illini's State Farm Center, the two-day event will begin for the Mids with competition in the second of two qualifying sessions set for 8 p.m. on Friday night. The team and event finals are scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday night. Seeded 10th in the 12-team field, this is the 10th consecutive time that Navy will be participating in the national championship event as a team (the 2020 championship was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic) as prior to head coach Kip Simons taking control of the program in the fall of 2015, the Mids had only one appearance at the NCAAs.

Over nine regular season meets and two postseason competitions, Navy has posted a national qualifying average (NQA) of 310.850 to earn the number 10 seed and a spot in the second session of Friday's qualifying meet. Navy will be matched up with No. 2 Michigan (324.250), No. 3 Stanford (322.988), No. 6 Penn State (315.375), No. 7 Illinois (315.075) and No. 11 Army (309.963). The top-three finishing teams from each Friday's two qualifying sessions (2 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET; 1 p.m./7 p.m.-local) 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. 

Illinois, the NCAA and ESPN will be providing live stats and video throughout the two-day event. Friday's coverage will air on ESPN+ with a main wrap-around stream, as well as standalone coverage for each event (fans will need to choose the individual streams for each new event to follow the Mids' every routine). On Saturday night, ESPN2 will broadcast the main wrap-around action with individual event streams again available on ESPN+. ESPN+ is a subscription-based streaming service that requires patrons to sign-up for monthly or yearly plans prior to tuning into the contest. 

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 as the first and only prior berth was in 2009.
    2016: Navy finished 12th of 12 teams
    2017: 11th of 12 teams
    2018: 11th of 12 teams
    2019: 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: 11th of 12 teams
    2022: 7th of 12 teams
    2023: 10th of 12 teams
    2024: 10th of 12 teams
    2025: 11th of 12 teams

NMG on Day 2 of the NCAAs
Under Simons' guidance, Navy has had 43 gymnasts advance from the qualifying meet and showcase their talents in the Championship Finals over 52 separate events ... on three occasions Midshipmen gymnasts ended up on the podium as NCAA All-Americans: Isaiah Drake (AA) and Syam Buradagunta (FX) in 2023 and Drake again in the all-around in 2025
    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)
    2024: Isaiah Drake (R), Matthew Petros (PB, HB), Colby Prince (FX) and Danilo Viciana (PB)
    2025: William Champagne (FX), Isaiah Drake (AA), Matthew Petros (HB), Brian Solomon (AA)

Navy at the 2025 NCAA Championship: April 18-19 at the University of Michigan
Navy left it all out on the floor of the Crisler Center on Friday night with action in the second session of the qualifying meet as part of the 2025 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championship. Starting with tough turns on the high bar and floor exercise during their first two rotations, the Mids rallied and performed admirably over the remaining four events to post a score of 308.056 in the competition that was held on the campus of the University of Michigan.

Hoping to attain one of the three automatic spots for a team into Saturday's event finals or at-large bids for individuals of teams that don't advance, Navy placed sixth in the session and 11th overall in the field of 12 teams. The Mids were matched up against No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Stanford, No. 6 Illinois, No. 7 Ohio State and No. 11 Army in the second pod.

The standings from that session saw those seedings hold fairly true as the three favorites to advance did just that with Michigan placing first with 329.824 points, edging Stanford by 0.796 points (329.028), while Illinois grabbed the final spot with a score of 323.194. Ohio State and Army came in fourth and fifth with respective scores of 319.459 and 311.091. 

After the gymnasts from Michigan, Stanford and Illinois were advanced from the individual leaderboard, Navy had four Midshipmen qualify for the next round of competition on Saturday night. Isaiah Drake and Brian Solomon led the way as both advanced as all-arounders. They'll be joined by William Champagne and Matthew Petros, who will each be competing in their second career NCAA Championship Finals. Drake will conclude his career with a fourth straight day two appearance.

As a team, Navy scored 51.231 points on the floor exercise, 51.531 on the pommel horse, 50.832 on the rings, 53.232 on the vault, 52.065 on the parallel bars and 49.165 on the high bar.

Fast forwarding to Saturday night, history was made as Isaiah Drake earned his second career All-American honor. One of four Midshipmen competing in the championship finals at Michigan's Crisler Center, Drake proved himself as one of the nation's most complete and versatile gymnasts as he placed eighth overall in the all-around contest.

After entering the program record book in 2023 alongside Syam Buradagunta as Navy's first NCAA Championship All-Americans since 1973, Drake became just the seventh-ever Navy gymnast to garner two All-American honors. Eric Swanson, the Midshipmen that previously earned the last All-American award, did so in back-to-back years on the pommel horse in 1972 and 1973.

His combined six-event score of 79.031 surpassed Cal's Tyler Shimizu for the final spot on the podium by 0.833 points as the Golden Bear placed ninth with a 78.198. Drake's strong finish saw him come within 0.5 points of Air Force's Erich Upton, who placed seventh overall at 79.531.

Navy's top individual event placement came on the high bar from Matthew Petros, who tied with Oklahoma's Brandon Zepeda-Orth for 13th overall with identical scores of 13.366. Both gymnasts performed 4.6 level routines with 8.766 execution on Saturday night. Petros came within 0.234 points of securing his first career NCAA Championship All-American honor as Nebraska's Max Odden grabbed the final podium position with a 13.6 effort.

Team Comparisons
Here is a breakdown of the six teams in session two for Friday night …

	Michigan	Stanford	Penn St.	Illinois	Navy	Army
Seeding	2	3	6	7	10	11
Nat'l Q. Average	324,250	322.988	315.375	315.075	310.850	309.963
Team-High Score	330.400	327.200	317.650	319.350	314.750	314.800

Mids in the Top-20
Navy gymnasts occupy X top-20 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)
     All-Around: Brian Solomon (2nd, NQA: 76.63 ... High: 79.05)
     Floor Exercise: Benjamin Thurlow Lam (3rd, NQA: 13.94 ... High: 14.10); Danilo Viciana (9th, NQA: 13.68 ... High: 14.00); Daniel Gurevich (13th, NQA: 13.60 ... High: 13.95)
     High Bar: Matthew Petros (15th, NQA: 13.36 ... High: 13.75)

Last Time Out: at ECAC Championship at West Point, N.Y., April 4
In a season that saw the top-three teams in the conference separated by just 1.433 points, the 2026 ECAC Men's Gymnastics Championship was one for the record books as those same top three teams left it all out on the line at the year-end conference meet on Saturday afternoon at West Point and finished within 1.15 points of each other on the podium. At the conclusion of six action-packed rotations at Army's Christl Arena, Greenville University came out on top for the first time in program history with a victorious score of 313.20. Navy was competitive throughout and led for a good portion of the meet before it was overtaken down the stretch and had to settle for second place with 312.20 points. The Mids were able to out-score the host Black Knights, who came in third with 312.05 points.

The remainder of the standings for Saturday's competition saw William & Mary place fourth at 310.45, Springfield fifth at 308.10 and Simpson College round out the six-team field with a 300.15 score.

The Mids were led by five different gymnasts turning in top-three event results, including a conference title winning performance by Matthew Petros on the high bar. In addition to the competition for event titles, Navy's Brian Solomon and Jonah Soltz vied for the all-around crown on Saturday. Solomon just missed nabbing the all-around title as he came in second to Greenville's Kyler Hinson, while Soltz placed fourth, less than a point behind Solomon in a crowded leaderboard.

As a team, Navy scored 54.45 points on the floor exercise, 52.20 on the pommel horse, 50.70 on the rings, 52.45 on the vault, 51.20 on the parallel bars and 51.20 on the high bar. The Mids' floor exercise and high bar efforts were the best in the competition field.