Tribe Men Claim Record 12th USAG Collegiate Crown

William and Mary Edges Midshipmen for Team Crown

03/24/07 6:55PM

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The College of William and Mary’s 14th-ranked men’s gymnastics squad captured its seventh consecutive USA Gymnastics Collegiate National Team Championship this afternoon by edging out runner up Navy, 199.85 to 198.00, in the nine-team field at Kaplan Arena.

The Tribe has now won the meet a record 12 times since first competing at the event in 1994. The win improves the College’s season mark to 15-6. The meet was broken into two divisions, one six-team group that included varsity programs (W&M, Navy, Air Force, Springfield College, M.I.T. and James Madison) and a three-squad field of college club teams (Arizona State, Texas and the University of Washington). The Sun Devils claimed the varsity division, with a score of 175.60, easily outdistancing runner-up Texas’ team score of 159.45.

The meet is sponsored by USA Gymnastics, the national governing body of the sport, and is a championship held annually for programs that are competing below a certain level of funding (the majority of the competing schools offer no scholarship funding).

The event was not decided until each team’s final rotation, as the College, which had been trailing the Midshipmen for most the afternoon, ended with a huge effort from its floor corps, which produced a team-season high score of 35.75 to power the victory. Tribe sophomore Sloan Crawford (Burlington, Ontario, Canada) and junior Dave Locke (Natick, Mass.) led the charge for the College, as the pair tied for the afternoon’s top score with a mark of 9.25. The mark stands as both a season and career high for Crawford and was a personal season best for Locke as well.

The College’s other standout event was the high bar, which also saw Locke and Crawford pacing the team. Locke posted another personal season high, as he scored a 9.05. Crawford put up the event’s third highest score (8.70) and established both season and career highs with the mark.

Overall, freshman Derek Gygax (Stevensville, MD) led the Tribe with four of his six routines counting towards the team total. He also placed second to Air Forces’ Gregory Stines in the all-around, with a six-event total of 48.850.

The top eight individual scores from each event advance to tomorrow’s individual event finals. No more than two athletes from one team can compete on the same event. The Tribe will have two individuals competing in each of the six events. Locke will enter tomorrow’s action with the top qualifying score on three events (floor, 9.25; vault, 8.50; and high bar, 9.05) while junior teammate Andrew Hunt (Upper Black Eddy, Pa.) comes into Sunday’s action with the top qualifying mark on the parallel bars (8.75).

The action will begin tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 pm inside of Kaplan Arena.

Team Scores (Varsity)
1. William and Mary, 199.850
2. Navy, 198.00
3. Air Force, 191.300
4. Springfield, 179.750
5. MIT, 176.850
6. JMU, 160.450

Team Scores (Club)
1. Arizona State, 175.600
2. Texas, 159.450
3. Washington, 61.450

Complete Team Results

Complete Individual Results