Gymnastics Earns Victory in Tri-Meet

Tribe Establishes Season High-Team Score

03/11/07 8:26PM

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The College of William and Mary’s 15th-ranked men’s gymnastics program scored a team season-high 203.55 points in easily outdistancing the hosting Springfield College (186.10) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (182.450) for the team title in a tri-meet Sunday afternoon

It was the second day in a row the College improved its season standard, as the Tribe entered the weekend with a high score of 196.15 (set during the squad’s last home meet on March 4), a mark it improved yesterday to 197.80 in finishing second in a tri-meet hosted by the United States Military Academy. The Tribe now sports an overall record of 9-6.

While the entire squad stepped up in the competition, it was the pommel horse corps that really fueled the huge team score, as it placed four athletes in the top five of the event in putting up an outstanding team mark of 34.40. Junior Aaron Ingram (Holden, Mass.) led the Tribe in the sweep of the top three, as he had a personal season-high score of 8.70. Sophomore James Prim (Hendersonville, N.C.) was second with his own personal-season best mark (8.65), while talented freshman Derek Gygax (Stevensvile, Md.) took third (8.60).

Gygax earned top overall honors, as he put together his top all-around effort with a meet high six-event score of 48.15.

The Tribe’s floor crew also excelled, as it combined for a team-season high score of 34.35. Sophomore Sloan Crawford (Burlington, Ontario) led the squad by flipping to a meet-high mark of 8.70. Freshman Josh Fried (Gwynedd Valley, Pa.) finished in second (8.60) and senior Gustav Lindquist (Old Greenwich, Conn.) placed third (8.55) on the event. Crawford also took home top honors on the high bar event, as he spun to a personal season-high mark of 8.45.

The afternoon’s top individual performance came during the rings, where Prim powered his way to a meet high, and career-best, mark of 9.45. The performance improves his previous best by three-tenths of a point (9.15). Ingram finished a distant sec-ond to Prim on the event, with a score of 8.60.

Junior Dave Locke (Natick, MA) continues to impress, despite coming into the weekend’s competition with various nag-ging injuries, as he flew to a first-place finish on the vault (8.55) and finished second overall on the high bar (8.45).

Junior Andrew Hunt (Upper Black Eddy, PA) rounded out the individual event winners on the afternoon for the College, as he claimed top honors on the high bar with a score of 8.75.

The next action for the College will come next weekend, when the team will prepare to defend its Virginia State Gymnas-tics Championship. The event will be held at James Madison next Saturday and Sunday, March 17th and 18th, with the team title contested on Saturday starting at 2:00 pm. The individual event championships will be held on 1:00 pm on Sunday.