Tribe Sinks Navy in Dual Meet

W&M Avenges Season-Opening Loss

02/29/08 11:00PM

Annapolis, Md. - Just over one month removed from dropping its season opener at the Naval Academy, the College of William and Mary’s 13th-ranked men’s gymnastics squad returned to the Midshipmen’s home mats at Macdonough Hall and used a balanced team effort to hand 14th-ranked Navy a 341.650 to 340.800 defeat in dual meet action on Friday evening.

The win improves the Tribe’s season record to 5-3, while more importantly; giving the squad it’s third-consecutive very competitive road score. The 341.650 team total was a season-high for the College. Coming into the weekend, W&M’s average team score was a 337.633, just percentage points away from 12th-place (University of Illinois-Chicago - 337.950). With the Tribe’s next action coming this Sunday against Army in what will be the team’s home-opener, another big team score could posi-tion head coach Cliff Gauthier’s young team to make a challenge at earning a bid to the NCAA Championships (top 12 teams are extended invitations).

In what was a remarkably balanced team-effort, the Tribe set team season-highs on both the floor exercise (58.90) and high bar (56.650) and was just mere fractions of a point off its best in the vault (60.150, with it previous best being 60.400).

Individually, the Tribe claimed four of the six event titles, led by senior tri-captain Andrew Hunt (Upper Black Eddy, Pa.), who claimed gold on both the high bar (14.85) and parallel bars (14.25). Fellow senior tri-captain Dave Locke (Natick, Mass.) and junior James Prim (Hendersonville, N.C.) also had a standout evenings, as Locke captured the floor exercise with a season-best mark of 15.300, while Prim muscled his way to a golden score of 15.20 on the rings. Locke also placed second on the vault event with a score of 15.35.

Freshman Andy Hunter (Tallahassee, Fla.) had a solid outing on the parallel bars, as he swung to a personal best mark of 14.20 and finished second overall on the evening. Sophomore Derek Gygax (Stevensville, Md.) rounded out the team’s top-3 fin-ishes at the event, as he also produced a career-best mark in scoring a 14.05 in finishing second on the pommel horse.

As previously stated, the College will be back in action on Sunday afternoon, as the squad hosts Army for what will be the team’s home-opener at Kaplan Arena. The event is schedule to start at 2:00 p.m. and is free to the public.