Nine Gymnasts Qualify for 2016 NCAAs

WEST POINT, N.Y. – Nine members of the Army West Point gymnastics team had their ticket punched as individual qualifiers for the 2016 NCAA Championships being held at St. John Arena on the campus of Ohio State April 15-16.

The championships will begin on Friday, April 15, with the national qualifier, which consists of two pre-qualifying sessions (1/7 p.m.). The Black Knights will compete in the first session beginning at 1 p.m. The top three individual finishers in all-around and on each event during each session, who are not already qualified on a team (top three teams qualify) or as an all-around competitor, will advance to Saturday's finals.

It is the third time in the last five years that the No. 12 Black Knights have sent nine qualifiers, joining participants who competed in 2012 and 2014.

Leading the way is senior Jesse Glenn, a finalist for the Nissen-Emery Award, who will be competing as an all-arounder along with freshman Cole Casanova. Glenn ranks first among the five individual qualifiers with an average of 85.963 and Casanova is second (85.90).

Glenn heads into the NCAAs ranked No. 1 nationally on high bar with an average of 15.288. His career high 15.45, which is an Army school record, is tied for the fifth highest score recorded this season. Glenn is also ranked 26th on floor exercise (14.8), 27th on pommel horse (14.475) and 28th on vault (14.813).

The Army senior is coing off a strong performance at the ECAC Championships where he defended his titles for the third straight year on all-around and high bar along with claiming his first crown on floor exercise.

Casanova is among the top 50 on floor exercise (14.45), still rings (14.175) and vault (14.475) and lists 53rd on pommel horse (13.725).

Multiple event qualifiers are juniors Sam Kusnitz and Leo Genders, along with sophomore Nathan Goff. Kusnitz meet the standard in four events - floor exercise (14.563), vault (14.588), parallel bars (13.788) and high bar (14.45). He is the top qualifier in two of those events - floor exercise, where he broke the school record this season with a 15.35, and vault.

Genders ranks first among the qualifiers on high bar with a 14.625 average and is second among that group on floor exercise (14.50). Goff is listed third on parallel bars (13.85) and is second behind Genders on high bar (14.55) where the two are ranked 22nd and 26th nationally, respectively.

Rounding out the rest of Army's field is Seth Cannon on floor exercise (13.963), Elliott Herman, still rings (14.063), Joe Pritt (14.40, listed second) and Ryan Wilson (14.263) on vault.

Overall, Army has two qualifying as all-arounds (Glenn, Casanova), three on floor exercise (Kusnitz, Genders, Cannon),
vault (Kusnitz, Pritts, Wilson) and high bar (Genders, Goff, Kusnitz), two on parallel bars (Goff, Kusniz) and one on still rings (Herman).

Cannon and Wilson also earned spots as alternates on parallel bars (13.619) and still rings (13.963), respectively.
The last Black Knight to advance to the NCAA finals was Garrek Hojan-Clark on pommel horse in 2013. He ranked No. 1 in trhe country for several weeks and was No. 2 heading into the championship.

Ranked first among the 12 qualifying field is Oklahoma (448.80), Stanford (443.213), Ohio State (438.438), California (434.313), Minnesota (434.113) and Illinois (432.85) in rounding out the top six teams. The Black Knights competed against four of the 12-team field defeating Air Force while bowing to California, Penn State and Navy in dual meets.

NCAA QUALIFIERS

ALL-AROUND
Jesse Glenn
Cole Casanova

FLOOR EXERCISE
Sam Kusnitz
Leo Genders
Seth Cannon

STILL RINGS
Elliott Herman

VAULT
Sam Kusnitz
Joe Pritts
Ryan Wilson

PARALLEL BARS
NathanGolff
Sam Kusnitz

HORIZOLNTAL BAR
Leo Genders
Nathan Goff
Sam Kusnitz

ALTERNATS
Seth Cannon (Parallel Bars)
Ryan Wilson (Still Rings)

Army West Point Athletics

Nine Gymnasts Qualify for 2016 NCAAs

Players Mentioned

Seth Cannon

Cole Casanova

Leo Genders

Jesse Glenn

Nathan Goff

Elliott Herman

Sam Kusnitz

Joe Pritts

Ryan Wilson

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