Five W&M Gymnast Earn All-ECAC Honors

Tribe’s Jamie Northrup Named ECAC Senior Gymnast of the Year

03/22/04 6:30PM

CHICAGO, IL - One day removed from finishing third as a team at the Eastern College Athletic Conference's Championships, the 13th ranked College of William and Mary Men's Gymnastics team had two individuals earn gold medals at the ECAC's Individual Championship Sunday evening on the University of Illinois-Chicago campus.

Leading the way for the College was senior Jamie Northrup (Newton, MA), who earned the meet’s highest honor by being named the ECAC's Senior Gymnast of the Year. This accolade is now the second significant honor for Northrup on the season, as he was named as a finalist for the prestigious Nissen-Emery Award (given annually to the nation’s top senior gymnast) earlier in the month. Northrup won first place in the pommel horse event (9.325) Sunday. This performance comes on the heels of his second place all-around finish Saturday night with a score of 53.100. Northrup also turned in a seventh place performance on the high bar (8.550).

Sophomore Ramon Jackson (Orlando, FL) had another great performance as he won All-ECAC honors and placed first on the parallel bars (9.275) for the 12th-consecutive meet this season. In other events, Jackson tied for fifth in the floor exercise (8.750) and finished 10th on the high bar (8.000).

The College of William and Mary had three other gymnasts win All-ECAC honors. After a sixth place all-around finish (51.750) Saturday night, sophomore Matt Elson (Brookfield, WI) tied for third on the vault (9.150) Sunday. Fellow sophomore Owen Nicholls (Anchorage, AK) finished sixth on the parallel bars (8.300) while junior Steve Douglass (Clarks Summit, PA) turned in a second place finish on the high bar (9.000).

Several of the College's gymnasts have a outstanding chance of representing the Tribe as indi-viduals at the upcoming NCAA Championships, which are being held April 2-4 at the University of Illi-nois. The official field will be announced tomorrow (Tuesday, March 23) afternoon.