Tribe Men’s Gymnastics Competes at Minnesota

Freshman All-Arounder Gygax Establishes Career Best

01/27/07 12:00PM

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - William and Mary’s 15th-ranked men’s gymnastics squad made the long trek to the Midwest to compete against the sixth-ranked University of Minnesota and turned in a solid team score of 189.650, but fell to the hosting Gophers late on Saturday evening in the event held at the St. Paul RiverCentre.

One week removed from upsetting the fifth-ranked University of Illinois, Minnesota posted a team score of 203.150 and moved its dual meet record to 2-0 on the young season. The Tribe’s record now sits at 2-4 on the year, with three of its losses coming against teams currently ranked in the national top 10 (with No. 2 Penn State and No. 9 Temple being the others).

As a team, the College’s highlight of the evening came on the pommel horse, as it posted a meet and team season-best mark of 31.10. Individually, four of the Tribe’s five counting scores were season bests, led by sophomore James Prim (Hendersonville, NC) who posted a season-best mark of 7.95 and finished second overall.

The College’s promising freshman all-arounder Derek Gygax (Stevensville, Md.) continued to show improvement as he re-upped his career best six-event total to 45.90, with all six of his scores contributing to the team total. His best individual event score came on the parallel bars, where he posted a career-best mark of 7.9.

Sophomore Sloan Crawford (Burlington, Ontario) tumbled to the team’s highest score, and only event victory, on floor exercise by posting a career-best mark of 9.15. Prim had the team’s second-best individual mark, as he powered his way to a solid fourth-place finish on the rings with a score of 8.70.

Junior Andrew Hunt (Upper Black Eddy, Penn.) led the team on both the parallel bars (8.20) and high bar (8.25) for the second time in three meets on the year. Both marks placed Hunt third overall at the event.

One of the more encouraging efforts on the evening for the College came on the vault, as sophomore Jay Hilbun (San Antonio, Texas) competed for the first time this season after coming off ankle surgery and turned in the team’s top mark in the event (7.75). Another positive performance came on the floor exercise, as talented junior Dave Locke (Natick, Mass.) was able to overcome shoulder and thumb injuries to compete for the first time this season and post a mark of 8.00.

The College’s next action will come next Saturday, as the team will travel to Harrisonburg, Va. and compete in the Shenandoah Open against James Madison, Navy, Springfield College and the University of Illinois-Chicago.