W&M Men’s Gymnastics End Home Schedule with Tri-Meet Victory

Tribe Posts Second-Highest Team Season Mark

03/21/08 10:39PM

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - With the squad needing a big team score to keep it in contention for the post-season, the College of William and Mary’s 11th-ranked men’s gymnastics team rose to the challenge and posted an out-standing score of 345.25 to record a tri-meet win over No. 14 Temple (342.500) and No. 12 Navy (335.800) on Friday evening in Kaplan Arena.

The win improved the College’s record to 9-4 on the year, while the team score will enhance the Tribe’s current team average of 343.800 that it carried into the evening’s competition.

The College posted the meet’s high score on five of the six events on the evening. Included in this impressive outing was a trio of team season-high marks on the rings (57.50), vault (60.950) and parallel bars (58.15).

William and Mary started the evening off on the floor exercise by putting up a team score of 57.25. Leading the charge for the floor corps was senior Andrew Hunt (Upper Black Eddy, Pa.). Hunt’s mark of 14.500 was the team’s best and stood as his third-best mark on the event this season.

Fellow senior Aaron Ingram (Paxton, Mass.) continued his impressive recovery from several nagging injuries by post-ing a career and meet best mark of 14.650 on the pommel horse. Ingram’s big score ignited a Tribe sweep of the top three positions on the event and propelled the squad to a score of 57.25, its second best overall total on the event this sea-son (with its high being a 57.45 mark, coming in a dual win over Army on March 8th). Juniors James Prim (Hendersonville, N.C.) and Richard Pearson (Baton Rouge, La.) finished second and third, respectively, on the event with a marks of 14.400 and 14.200.

Ingram, Prim and Pearson were the final three competitors on the pommel event, and their big finish gave the team momentum that carried over into the ring event, which saw three of the six Tribe athletes set career-bests. Ingram once again came through large, as his career best mark of 14.250 placed him second on the team and fourth overall. Prim found gold on the event, as his score of 15.200 was the meet’s best and stood as his second-best effort on the year.

The Tribe’s surge didn’t stop there, as the vault crew flew to the team’s season standard, led by freshman Alex Egerter’s (Sacramento, Calif.) career best effort of 15.65. Locke, who tied his personal best on the event, finishing sec-ond overall with a mark of 15.45, complimented Egerter’s efforts.

The big scores just seemed to keep flowing for the College, as the team’s parallel bar contingent also caught the light-ening the big crowd on hand provided. Starting with freshman Andrew Hunter (Tallahasse, Fla.), the first three gymnasts for the College set personal records on the event. Hunter’s mark of 14.300 was fourth on the squad, while fellow fresh-man Derek Gygax (Stevensville, Md.) was third overall with a personal-best score of 14.350. Hunt was first, overall, with a score of 14.750.

The last event of the evening was also the most difficult for the College, as several potential big routines were just slightly off, but the team still managed a solid 55.20 point-total. Once again, Hunt led the way for the College, as he scored a 14.450 and finished second overall on the evening.

William and Mary’s next action will come next weekend, as it competes at the USAG Championships at Springfield College. The action will begin at 2:00 pm next Friday, as the team championship will be contested.