WIILIAM AND MARY MEN’S GYMNASTICS CAPTURES ECAC TITLE

Tribe’s Jackson Advances to Individual Finals in Five Events

03/25/06 7:00PM

ANNAPOLIS, MD - The 10th-ranked William and Mary men’s gymnastics team entered Saturday afternoon’s Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) as the prohibitive favorite and lived up to its billing by taking home the team title with a score of 206.13 at the eight-team event hosted by the United States Naval Academy.

The title is the College’s third, all-time, at the event, but its first since 1994.

The championship and team score ensure that the Tribe will also be making its fourth appearance at the NCAA Team Championships in the last five years.

In an afternoon where every score was earned, it was a balanced team effort that carried the day for William and Mary, as six Tribe athletes turned in a total of 14 top eight finishes. The College easily outdistanced the hosting Naval Academy’s second-place score of 203.78. Temple University finished third with a total of 203.18, while the United States Military Academy rounded out the top four with a score of 200.00.

Sophomore Aaron Ingram (Paxton, MA) earned All-ECAC designation by placing fourth in the all-around with a season-high six-event total of 50.03. With the top eight scores in each event advancing to tomorrows Individual Championship, Ingram qualified in three events (parallel bars, 5th-place, 8.35; pommel horse, 6th-place, 8.40; and rings, 8th-place, 8.725).

Going along with Ingram’s heroics was a spectacular performance by returning two-time All-American Ramon Jackson (Orlando, FL). Jackson qualified for tomorrows individual finals in all five events he competed in on the afternoon. He posted the meet’s top score on his specialty event, the parallel bars, with a 9.10 and was the second-highest qualifier on the rings with a mark of 9.30. He rounded off his afternoon with a third-place showing on the vault (9.15) and a pair of fifth-place finishes on the floor exercise (8.80) and high bar (8.950).

Despite Jackson and Ingram’s standout efforts, the Tribe’s highlight of the afternoon could possibly have come in the high bar, where sophomore Andrew Hunt (Upper Black Eddy, PA) turned a huge career best mark of 9.300 to pace the field on the high bar. His performance was .3 hundredths of a point higher than his previous best (9.0, set just two weeks prior).

Fellow sophomore David Locke (Natick, MA) joined Ingram and Jackson as the only Tribe gymnasts to qualify for tomorrow’s individual event finals in multiple disciplines, as he advanced on the high bar (9.050, fourth-best); vault (9.000, sixth-best); and floor exercise (8.55, eight-best).
Seniors Jeff Jaekle (Stratford, CT) and Owen Nicholls (Anchorage, AK) will also see action tomorrow, as Jaekle will bring in the meet’s third-best qualifying mark on the rings (9.10), Nicholls will compete on the parallel bars after turning in the afternoon’s eight best mark on the apparatus (8.250).

The ECAC Individual Event finals are scheduled to start at 3:00 p.m..