Tribe Men Gymnastics Earn At-Large Bid to NCAA Championships; Place Second at ECACs

Tribe to Make Fifth Appearance in Last Seven Years at NCAA Meet

04/04/08 11:13PM

WEST POINT, N.Y. - The William and Mary men’s gymnastics team provided living proof of the fact that every cloud has a silver lining, as despite being edged out by Temple for the coveted Eastern College Athletic Confer-ence [ECAC] crown by nearly the sport’s smallest measurable margin (341.45 points to 341.35) on Friday evening, the squad still will advance to the NCAA Team Championships, by virtue of its season scoring average.

The six-team ECAC Championship event, hosted by the United States Military Academy, came down to the final evening’s final participant, as Temple used a meet-high floor score to provide the winning margin. Despite what many would consider a heart-breaking set-back, long-time William and Mary Head Coach Cliff Gauthier was undaunted in his appreciation of the squad’s efforts. “Our goal coming into the weekend was to compete to the up-most of our abilities – and I think we accomplished our goal. Certainly, it would have been great to win the title, but I am very proud of the total team effort we turned in this evening. Our student-athletes have overcome a great deal to get to this point and our making it to the NCAA Championships is a tremendous accomplishment they should all take great pride in achieving.”

The University of Illinois-Chicago finished third on the evening (340.90), while Navy, Springfield College and Massachusetts In-stitute of Technology rounding out the final three positions. With the team victory, Temple earned the league’s automatic bid into the NCAA field. The College’s season team average of 342.15 ranks it 12th-nationally and also qualifies it for the 12-team champi-onship field.

Individually, the Tribe was led by the usual outstanding efforts of senior tri-captains Dave Locke (Natick, Mass.), Andrew Hunt (Upper Black Eddy, Pa.) and Aaron Ingram (Paxton, Mass.). The trio qualified for seven individual event finals (which will be con-tested tomorrow at 7:00 pm), with Locke earning a spot in the floor, vault and parallel bars, Hunt making the cut on parallel bars and high bar and Ingram advancing on the pommel horse and parallel bars. Sophomore James Prim (Hendersonville, N.C.) continued with his steady performances, as turned in the evening’s top mark on the rings and will also advance to the individual finals on the pommel horse. But, along with these outstanding individuals, Gauthier also made special note of the gusty performance turned in by sophomore Sloan Crawford (Burlington, Ontario, Canada), who competed with an injured elbow and delivered clutch performances on both the floor exercise and the vault event.

Fellow sophomores Josh Fried (Gwynedd Valley, Pa.) and Alex Egerter (Sacramento, Calif.) rounded out the Tribe’s qualifiers for tomorrow’s individual event finals, as Fried will compete for All-East honors on the floor exercise while Egerter will challenge on the pommel horse.