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April 10, 2007

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Seven members from the Navy gymnastics team have earned the right to compete at the NCAA Qualifying Meet on Thursday at Penn State's Rec Center with the opportunity to partake in the NCAA Championship on Friday and Saturday night.

The NCAA Qualifying Meet is broken into two sessions, with the first starting at 1 p.m. and the second beginning at 7 p.m. on Thursday. The top-three all-around gymnasts not on one of the 12 qualifying teams and the top-three performers not already qualified with a team or as an all-around competitor will advance to the national championship.

Ranked 17th in the nation in the all-around, Navy junior Christopher Tam (Draper, Utah) will look to advance to the national championship as both an all-around gymnast and in several events. The Navy junior owns a national qualifying average score of 48.68 and has scored above that mark on five occasions this year. He enters Thursday's action also ranked as the 22nd-highest scoring gymnast in the nation on the high bar, where he has a ranking score of 8.82. He has scored an 8.85 or higher on the apparatus during three of his last-five performances. The product of Draper, Utah, also maintained an average mark above an 8.0 in the floor exercise (8.7), still rings (8.46) and the parallel bars (8.07).

Navy sophomore Joseph Atzenbeck (Broomfield, Colo.) will see action on the pommel horse, parallel bars and high bar this Thursday. Atzenbeck leads the team with a 25th-place national ranking on the pommel horse (8.5) and 59th-place ranking in the country on the parallel bars (8.32), while also owning an 8.65 qualifying average score on the high bar for 36th in the nation. The Navy sophomore has scored above an 8.0 in each of his last-seven performances on the pommel horse and six-straight times on the high bar.

Junior Brandon Cook (Longmont, Colo.) placed among the top-50 gymnasts in both the vault and floor exercise disciplines to earn a spot in both events on Thursday. Cook was crowned the ECAC champion on the vault over a week ago with an 8.6-point performance. Ranked 39th in the country, he has scored higher than an 8.0 on the vault in 10 of his 11 performances this year. Cook owns the 48th-highest qualifying score in the country in the floor exercise with an 8.84, highlighted by his 9.15-point performance during the opening day of the USAG Collegiate Division Championship.

Another Navy gymnast will partake in two events on Thursday, as sophomore Adam Stanton (Centennial, Colo.) advanced on the pommel horse and parallel bars. Stanton edged out Atzenbeck on the pommel horse with an 8.65 from the judges to win the event at the ECAC Championship. During his last-two performances on the pommel horse, the 29th-ranked gymnast in the nation has bested his season-best mark. The product of Centennial, Colo. has also emerged on the parallel bars, scoring an 8.0 or higher during each of his last-four efforts.

After missing nearly a month during the middle of the season, junior Isaac Olson (Spokane, Wash.) has made an impressive return on the high bar. He ranks 24th in the country on the apparatus, including 9.0-point performances at the USAG Collegiate Division Championship and the ECAC Championship. He was crowned the event champion at the USAG Collegiate Division Championship and finished at the conference championship finals with a near flawless routine.

Senior team captain Sean Blackman (Fayetteville, Ga.) has also worked his way back from injury to make it to Thursday's competition on the still rings. The 45th-ranked gymnast in the discipline owns five-straight scores above an 8.0, highlighted by his impressive 9.25-point showing in the preliminary round of the ECAC Championship.

Rounding out the Navy contingent at the national qualifying meet is junior Jon-Michael Chombeau (Beaverton, Ore.) on the vault. He has registered a mark of 8.0 or higher in four-consecutive meets, including an 8.2 at the USAG Collegiate Division Championship where he stuck his landing.

This year's group of seven Midshipmen advancing to the NCAA Qualifying Meet is the second-largest contingent over the last-seven years. Navy has sent at least five gymnasts to the national qualifier over that seven-year stretch.

In 2006, the Mids advanced eight gymnasts to the national qualifying meet, with Cook and Stanton each moving on to the preliminary round of the NCAA Championship. Cook nearly made it through to the finals in the floor exercise with an 11th-place finish, while Stanton placed 40th on the pommel horse.