Tribe Men’s Gymnastics Competes at Illinois-Chicago

Senior Tri-Captains, Hunt and Locke, Claim Individual Event Titles

02/09/08 8:22PM

Chicago, Ill. - Despite some key injuries to crucial veterans, the College of William and Mary’s 14th-ranked men’s gymnastics squad still put together a solid team score of 327.50 on Saturday even in dropping a dual meet to the hosting 13th-ranked University of Illinois-Chicago Flames, who recorded the win with a team score of 336.45.

The loss moves the Tribe’s record to 2-2 on the young season, while the Flames improve to 1-1.

The College’s lineup entered the competition at less than full strength as talented senior all-arounder Aaron Ingram (Pax-ton, Mass.) was limited to just one event (rings) due to injury. The squad was quickly dealt another blow as it lost junior Sloan Crawford (Burlington, Ontario, Canada) after just one rotation to an arm injury, which played a large role in helping the Flames claim the team-title on four of the six disciplines. The Tribe captured the floor exercise, with a team-season best score of 56.450, and the high bar (53.650) events.

Leading the way individually for the College was senior tri-captain Dave Locke (Natick, Mass.), who claimed gold on the floor exercise with a mark of 14.850. He also placed fourth on the high bar (13.200), sixth on the parallel bars (13.200) and sev-enth on the vault (14.600). Fellow senior tri-captain Andrew Hunt (Upper Black Eddy, Pa.) came into the event ranked third nationally on the high bar was a season average of 14.800 and swung to a first place tie on the evening on the event with a mark of 14.350. Hunt also placed fourth on the floor exercise (14.050) and fifth on the rings (13.450).

Junior James Prim (Hendersonville, N.C.) also was a standout at the event for the College, as he claimed a second-place overall finish on the rings (14.450) and a third-place showing on the pommel horse with a personal season best mark of 13.500.

The Tribe will be in action again in two weeks when it travels to Boston for a weekend of action. First, the College will compete in a dual meet on Saturday, February 23 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Then, the following Sunday, it will once again cross the path of UIC, in a tri-meet hosted at Springfield College.