W&M’s Jackson Advances to Individual Event Final at NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Championships

Jackson Looks to Gain Third NCAA All-American Honor

04/07/06 3:00PM

NORMAN, OK - William and Mary standout senior gymnast Ramon Jackson (Or-lando, FL) vaulted to a career-best mark of 9.450 during Friday evening’s individual event pre-liminary round of the NCAA Championships, held on the campus of the University of Oklahoma.

The mark, which was the sixth-best overall at the meet, advances Jackson to Saturday evening’s individual event finals, which will start at approximately 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The top 10 individuals moved on each of the six disciplines, with the top eight scores from Saturday’s action earning the distinction of all-American.

Jackson, a 2004 National Champion on the parallel bars and a 2005 All-American on the same event, is already the first Tribe gymnast to earn a pair of all-American certificates and is cur-rently one of only four in the program’s long history to have earned the honor. Before Jackson took the title in 2004, no William and Mary underclassman had ever earned the accolade.

Jackson was competing on Friday evening as an all-arounder and finished with a six-event total of 50.650, which placed him 15th overall. He wasn’t able to advance to his third consecutive individual event championships in his specialty event, the parallel bars, as he turned in a score of 8.400, well off the pace for the event.

Sophomore David Locke (Natick, MA) also competed on Friday evening, as he contested both the floor exercise and vault events. His mark of 8.750 on the floor exercise put him in 27th, overall, and he finished well off the pace in the vault with a mark of 5.950.

Freshman James Prim (Hendersonville, NC) rounded out the competitors for the College on Friday evening, as he matched his pommel horse score from the preliminaries and posted a solid mark of 8.100, placing him in a tie for 25th overall at the event.

W&M Individual Scores from Friday’s NCAA individual event preliminaries:

Ramon Jackson (All-Around):
Floor Exercise: 8.800 (26th-place)
Pommel Horse: 6.950 (46th-place)
Rings: 8.800 (25th-place)
Vault: 9.450 (sixth-place)*
Parallel Bars: 8.400 (39th-place)
High Bar: 8.250 (42nd-place)

David Locke
Floor Exercise: 8.750 (27th-place)
Vault: 5.950 (46th-place)

James Prim
Parallel Bars: 8.100 (T25th-place)

* = top 10 advances to Saturday’s event finals