CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – History was made on Saturday night at the 2026 NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championship as junior Brian Solomon became the highest-ever Navy finisher in the all-around competition as he earned All-America status with a fifth-place result. Strong throughout his six-event performance at Illinois' State Farm Center, Solomon joined Isaiah Drake (USNA '25) as the only Midshipmen gymnasts to ever finish on the podium in the all-around discipline after Drake finished eighth in 2023 and 2025.

In addition to Solomon's theatrics, four other Midshipmen competed in individual event finals: seniors Danilo Viciana (floor exercise and parallel bars) and Matthew Petros (parallel bars), junior Benjamin Thurlow Lam (floor exercise) and freshman Kody Tokunaga (pommel horse).

Solomon's historic night began on the vault as he stuck his landing to give him an overall score of 13.8. In the standings for the vault, that result placed him 17th overall of 36 gymnasts. He backed up his strong start with another quality performance, this time on the parallel bars. At the conclusion of his routine, he turned in the 23rd-best score of 13.166. The ensuing event, the high bar was his lowest scoring of the night as he earned 11.966 points to tie Ohio State's Drake Andrews for 31st place.

Solidly within the prerequisite top-eight to earn All-America status at the mid-way point, Solomon continued racking up points in the second half of his all-around effort. On the floor exercise, he garnered a score of 13.1, that was good for 25th in the standings. Next up was the pommel horse where the junior nearly duplicated his placement as he tied for 26th with Ohio State's Conan Simpkins as they both earned 12.833 scores. Solomon capped his performance with 12.333 points on the rings to give him a cumulative score of 77.198.

In the final standings for the all-around competition, Michigan's Fred Richard defended his title with a dominant score of 83.598 that cleared runner-up Max Odden of Nebraska by nearly five points as the Cornhusker posted a 78.698 result. The battle for third place came down to the final rotation as Ohio State's Kristian Grahovski held off Penn State's Landon Simpson and Solomon with a 78.266 score. Simpson was less than a point back at 77.298 with Solomon only one-tenth of a point behind him in fifth.

The rest of the podium consisted of William & Mary's Luke Tully (76.598 points), Penn State's Kellen Ryan (76.098) and Illinois' Preston Ngai (75.997).

Among Navy's individual event finalists, Tokunaga showed out in his first-event NCAA Championship meet and came within 0.4 points of attaining All-America status on the pommel horse. The freshman from nearby Palatine, Illinois earned a 13.233 score from the judges to place 19th overall. Illinois' Tate Costa grabbed the final spot on the podium with a 13.633 mark on Saturday night.

Navy's next best individual result came courtesy of Matthew Petros, a three-time NCAA Championship event finalist. In his final collegiate competition, Petros earned a hard-fought 13.233 points for his parallel bars routine that ranked him 21st in the field.

The Mids' only two-event finalist, team captain Danilo Viciana also competed on the parallel bars on Saturday night and placed 32nd with a score of 12.133. The senior's other action came on the floor exercise where he recorded a 13.0 score that left him 28th in the standings.

The fifth gymnast to represent Navy in the event finals was Benjamin Thurlow Lam, who looked to repeat his CGA Regular Season All-America feat. Unfortunately, for the junior, who performed so consistent and admirably all regular season long, Saturday was not his night as he struggled to find his groove and scored 11.766 points to finish 36th overall.

In the team finals, Stanford climbed back atop the podium and collected its sixth NCAA Championship in seven seasons with a dramatic 329.825 to 328.495 victory over Oklahoma. Michigan was unable to defend its team title from 2025 and placed third with a score of 324.857. Nebraska finished less than two-tenths off the podium in fourth at 324.662. Illinois and Ohio State rounded out the standings in fifth and sixth with respective scores of 322.224 and 316.093.