Tribe Has Golden Afternoon at Virginia State Individual Championships

Sophomore Sloan Crawford Earns Pair of Gold Medals

03/18/07 10:02PM

HARRISONBURG, Va. - One day removed from capturing its 33rd-consecutive Virginia State Gymnastics Title, the College of William and Mary’s men’s squad continued its successes in the individual portion of the event as the Tribe claimed titles in all six disciplines this afternoon on the campus of James Madison University.

The Tribe was well represented on the medal's stand, as it swept the top three places in five of the six events (all except vault). Sophomore Sloan Crawford (Burlington, Ontario) and juniors David Locke (Natick, Mass.) and Aaron Ingram (Holden, Mass.) led the way for the College, as each collected medals in three different events.

Crawford claimed gold in both the floor exercise (9.05) and on the vault (8.05), while finishing third on the high bar. The gold medal effort on the floor exercise marked the second-straight season Crawford claimed top honors at the event.

Ingram was the meet’s top performer on the parallel bars, just edging out teammate and fellow junior Andrew Hunt (Upper Black Eddy, Pa.), with a score of 8.60 to Hunt’s mark of 8.50. Ingram also finished second on the rings (8.75) and placed third on the pommel horse (8.35). Despite the runner up showing on the parallel bars, the Keystone state native was not to be denied in the high bar, where Hunt rolled to a gold medal mark of 8.5.

Tribe sophomore Richard Pearson (Baton Rouge, La.) muscled out a career-best routine in posting a 8.9 to claim the pommel horse title for the second consecutive year.

Sophomore James Prim (Hendersonville, N.C.) swung to the single highest score of the afternoon in claiming the ring title with a mark of 9.1.

While not claiming any individual titles, Locke was extremely consistent on the afternoon, as he took home a pair of silver finishes (vault and high bar) and turned in a bronze performance on the floor exercise.

The Tribe’s next action will be in Kaplan Arena next Saturday afternoon, as it will host to the USA Gymnastics Collegiate National Championships. The team portion of the event will be held on Saturday afternoon, starting at 2:00 pm, while Sunday will find the nine-team field contesting the individual event championships.