April 17, 2008

PALO ALTO, Calif. - The Navy gymnastics team will have seven of its own partake in the NCAA Qualifying Meet today at Stanford University's Maples Pavilion. The first session takes place at 4 p.m. EST, with the second and final session kicking off at 10 p.m. EST.

Adam Stanton (Jr./Centennial, Colo.) will partake in three events on Thursday, coming in as the highest-ranked individual qualifier in two of those events. Stanton ranks first on the pommel horse with a qualifying score of 14.39 points and his identical 14.39-point mark on the parallel bars is tops among individual entries. The Navy junior will also take his shot on the still rings, where he owns a qualifying average of 14.35 points.

Classmate Joseph Atzenbeck (Jr./Broomfield, Colo.) will also perform in three disciplines - the pommel horse, parallel bars and horizontal bar. Atzenbeck owns the highest individual qualifying mark on the horizontal bar with a 13.82 and ranks just behind teammate Stanton on the pommel horse (14.06) and parallel bars (13.79).

All-around gymnasts Dylan Parrott (Fr./Rockwell, N.C.) and Christopher Tam (Sr./Draper, Utah) both earned a spot in Thursday's action. Parrott's 84.52-point qualifying average ranks third, while Tam's 83.46-point mark is fifth among individual entries.

Three other Midshipmen are slated to compete for a spot in the national championship. Isaac Olson (Sr./Spokane, Wash.) ranks third on the horizontal bar with a mark of 13.67, while Grant Waldron (Fr./Columbia, Md.) is fourth on the qualifier list on the vault with his 15.2-point average and Trey James (Jr./Matthews, N.C.) owns the fifth-highest score on the pommel horse with a 13.29.

The top three all-around competitors not on one of the qualifying teams, plus the top three individuals on each event not already qualified on a team or as an all-around competitor, will advance from each pre-qualifying session to the NCAA Championship, which will be held on Friday and Saturday night on the campus of Stanford University.