Navy to Face William & Mary and Penn State This Weekend

Midshipmen enter the weekend with a 9-7 mark and rank 13th in the country

	Brandon Cook scored an 8.95 in the floor exercise last weekend

March 2, 2007

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy gymnastics team heads back on the road this weekend when it travels to Williamsburg, Va., to take on William & Mary and Penn State on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.

The Midshipmen improved to 9-7 on the year last weekend with a 197.2-163.9 victory over James Madison in its final home meet of the season at Macdonough Hall.

Navy enters the weekend ranked 13th in the nation, while Penn State comes in as the second-best team in the country and William & Mary at 15th in the rankings.

Junior Christopher Tam (Draper, Utah) looks to lead Navy in several events in the all-around event on Saturday. The 13th-ranked gymnast in the country in the all-around tallied 48.9 points last week against James Madison, scoring an 8.0 or higher in five of the six disciplines. His highest score came on the high bar, where he earned an 8.6 from the judges. Tam ranks 20th nationally on the high bar with an average score of 8.983.

Sophomore Joseph Atzenbeck (Broomfield, Colo.) has registered a score of 8.0 or higher in his three events during two of the last-three meets. He scored an 8.75 on the high bar, an 8.3 on the pommel horse and an 8.3 on the parallel bars last Saturday in Annapolis. After starting the year on just the pommel horse and high bar, he added the parallel bars to his repertoire, where he's scored above an 8.0 in each of his three tries in the event.

Junior Brandon Cook (Longmont, Colo.) recorded a season-best 8.95 in the floor exercise last week and has been at or above the 8.5 mark all season in the event. In addition to the floor exercise, Cook has scored higher than an 8.0 in all-five competitions on the vault.

Sophomore Adam Stanton (Centennial, Colo.) has proven to be a solid scorer on the pommel horse this season. In three of his last-four competitions, Stanton has registered an 8.0 or higher in the event.

Junior Rich Mehlmann (Bristol, R.I.) has served the Midshipmen quite well on the still rings, earning higher than an 8.4 in each of his last-three meets. Working his way back on the rings after an early-season injury is senior team captain Sean Blackman (Fayetteville, Ga.). Blackman has scored above an 8.0 in both meets since his return to the still rings.

Following this weekend's action, Navy will wrap up its regular season on March 17 at Temple for a 2 p.m. meet.