Navy to Host James Madison in Home Finale on Saturday

The Midshipmen have topped the Dukes in each of the previous-three meetings this year

	Team captain Sean Blackman will be competing in his final home of his career on Saturday

Feb. 22, 2007

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy gymnastics team will close out its home season when it hosts James Madison in a 2 p.m. dual meet on Saturday in Macdonough Hall.

The Midshipmen (8-7) are coming off a second-place performance at the All-Academy Championship last Saturday in San Francisco. Navy scored 196.05 points, only 3.35 points behind defending-champion Army's total of 199.4 points. The margin last weekend was 4.1 points closer than the difference between the two teams' scores one week prior in the Star Meet at West Point.

James Madison (0-16) makes the trip to Annapolis following a 196.15-158.35 loss at William & Mary last Saturday.

The Mids and the Dukes have met on three prior occasions in 2007, with Navy coming away with the higher score in all-three meets. The two teams competed against each other in the Navy Open, West Point Open and James Madison Invitational. Navy and James Madison will face each other two more times following this weekend, first at the USAG Collegiate National Championship, followed by ECAC/EIGL Championship one week later.

Navy junior Christopher Tam (Draper, Utah) enters the weekend ranked nationally on the high bar and in the all-around. Tam, the 13th-ranked gymnast in the country on the high bar, registered a season-best score of 9.2 to win the event last weekend. He has scored an 8.5 or higher in the event in four of his five meets this year. Helped by his performances on the high bar, he ranks ninth in the nation in the all-around. The product of Draper, Utah, racked up 48.0 points or more in the all-around four times this season, highlighted by a 50.7-point performance in the season-opening Navy Open.

Sophomore Joseph Atzenbeck (Broomfield, Colo.) won the parallel bars for the second-straight week last Saturday with a score of 8.45. One week prior in his first action in the event this year, he claimed gold with a team-best score of 8.75 points.

Senior team captain Sean Blackman (Fayetteville, Ga.) will be competing in his final home meet of his career on Saturday after placing second on the still rings last weekend. Competing in his strongest event for the first time this year after battling back from injury, he earned an 8.7 from the judges.

Junior Brandon Cook (Longmont, Colo.) has scored an 8.0 or higher on both the floor exercise and vault four times this year. Last Saturday, he finished in a third-place tie on the floor exercise with a score of 8.65. His season-high scores both came in Navy's home gym more than a month ago, posting scores of 8.9 and 9.1 on the floor exercise and vault events, respectively.

The Midshipmen will return on the road next Saturday when they travel to Williamsburg, Va., to take on William & Mary and Penn State. The meet is slated to begin at 2 p.m.