CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – In the final team competition of the year, the Navy men's gymnastics team showcased the heart and grit of the program in the second session of Friday's NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championship Qualifying Meet. Hosted by the University of Illinois at the State Farm Center, the Mids put forth a valiant effort, but a few uncharacteristic errors ultimately held the team back as they settled for a sixth-place result with 306.726 points.

The standings for Friday's second session of action saw No. 2 Stanford place first of the six teams with a score of 327.992. In a fairly straight forward advancement, No. 3 Michigan earned the second spot in Saturday night's team finals with 324.623 points, while No. 7 Illinois pulled a minor upset and grabbed the final berth with 319.658. The three teams that didn't qualify consisted of No. 6 Penn State (311.357 points), No. 11 Army (308.593) and No. 10 Navy.

Each of Penn State, Army and Navy had numerous athletes qualify as individuals for action in Saturday night's championship final. The Mids will be well represented as five of the 12 gymnasts that competed on Friday night turned in championship-worthy efforts led by Brian Solomon (Jr., Lynnfield, Mass.) placing first in the session's all-around competition and team captain Danilo Viciana (Sr., Marietta, Ga.) qualifying for a pair of event finals, the floor exercise and parallel bars. The rest of the qualifiers include, Benjamin Thurlow Lam (Jr., San Francisco, Calif.) on the floor exercise, freshman Kody Tokunaga (Palatine, Ill.) on the pommel horse and Matthew Petros (Sr., Broadview Heights, Ohio) on the parallel bars.

As a team, Navy scored 52.566 points on the floor exercise, 51.499 on the pommel horse, 49.432 on the rings, 53.465 on the vault, 51.232 on the parallel bars and 48.532 on the high bar. The squad's effort on the floor exercise ranked third-best in the field.

"The team came up a bit short of our goal tonight," remarked head coach Kip Simons. "It's always tough to end the season missing your final goal, but we'll have a strong showing in the finals tomorrow night.

"I was really proud of Brian tonight. He went out and did a great job finishing first in the all-around for the session. I expect him to be a little better tomorrow night and make a run at becoming an All-American in the all-around. I can't say enough about our team captain Danilo Viciana, he was an absolute killer out there tonight as he attacked his routines with 100 percent confidence. He has put in the work and it showed tonight. Kody Tokunaga started off the meet for us on the toughest event and made it into the finals as a Plebe, the future is extremely bright for him."

The competition on Friday night began on the pommel horse for Navy. Leading off the lineup in his first-ever NCAA Championship competition was Illinois native, Kody Tokunaga. The freshman was more than up to the task as he posted a team-high score of 13.2 as he earned an execution score of 8.5 on his 4.7-start valued routine. That effort earned him the third at-large advancement position for the pommel horse as his score ranked 13th overall.

The next event, the rings was a solid turn for the Mids as their quartet had two scores in the top-19. Solomon led the team with a score of 12.533 that tied Simpson's Alex Campbell for 17th place. In his final collegiate competition, Garrett Lawless (Sr., Grimesland, N.C.) came in 0.067 points back with a 12.466 score that placed him 19th in the field.

The vault rotation was similarly unfruitful for Navy as Solomon was the lone gymnast to rank amongst the top-20 as he posted a 13.566 score that was good for 16th. Jonah Soltz (So., Tacoma, Wash.) was the second-highest scoring Mid as he netted the squad 13.366 points to rank 23rd.

Navy's senior class left its mark on the team's fourth event of the evening, the parallel bars. Beginning with a 4.5 start value, Petros was clean throughout his routine and garnered 8.866 execution points for a combined score of 13.366 that tied him in eighth with Michigan's Solen Chiodi. The second-best execution score in the field of 30 came from the Mids' Danilo Viciana as he earned 9.200 points from the judges of his 3.9-point valued routine. His 13.2 score finished 12th overall and decimal points ahead of Air Force's Palmer Wright for the final advancement position.

A solid turn on the high bar saw a pair of Mids finish in the top-20, though both Soltz and Petros missed grabbing one of the exclusive qualifying spots with their respective scores of 12.433 and 12.4, that left them in 18th and 19th place. Both gymnasts' final scores were aided by 0.1-point stick bonuses.

Navy saved its best for last as its potent floor exercise lineup showed out with four of its gymnasts turning in top-14 results. Viciana led the team with a score of 13.800 that ranked fourth overall. He executed his 4.9-level routine with 8.8 accuracy and added a 0.1-stick bonus to make up his standout score. Right behind in the standings was Solomon, who also earned a 0.1-stick bonus to add to his cumulative score 13.766. Thurlow Lam captured the final transfer position into Saturday night's finals as he recorded a score of 13.533 that ranked eighth overall. In the thick of it, Colby Prince (Sr., Lithia, Fla.) capped his career with a 13.300 effort that ranked 14th in the field.
 
In the final standings for the all-around competition, Solomon finished first of six with a cumulative score of 77.697. He netted 13.766 points from the floor, 12.866 from the pommel horse, 12.533 from the rings, 13.566 from the vault, 12.833 from the parallel bars and 12.133 from the high bar. Solomon was the high scorer among all competitions in both sessions of Friday's action as William & Mary's Luke Tully placed first in the afternoon with a combined score of 76.731 points.

The first session of the qualifying meet that was held Friday afternoon saw Oklahoma (322.825), Ohio State (320.294) and Nebraska (320.059) advance as teams, while gymnasts from California (312.026), Greenville (307.059) and Springfield (306.426) secured individual at-large berths in Saturday's event finals.

Overall, the Mids score ranked 11th of the 12 teams competing during the two sessions of the qualifying meet as they edged out Springfield by 0.3 points, while coming up just 0.333 points shy of nabbing 10th place from Greenville. 
 
The NCAA Championship Finals are scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday night at the State Farm Center. The quintet of Petros (PB), Solomon (AA), Tokunaga (PH), Thurlow Lam (FX), Viciana (FX, PB) will be vying for the right to earn All-American status versus gymnasts from the six squads that qualified for the team finals, as well as select individual qualifiers. The action will be streamed live on ESPN+ and televised on ESPN2.