Nine Gymnasts Qualify for NCAAs Hosted by Army

OFFICIAL RELEASE

WEST POINT, N.Y. – For the second year in a row, nine members of the Army West Point gymnastics team have solidified their spots as individual qualifiers for the 2017 NCAA Championships hosted by West Point April 21-22.

The NCAA Championships will kick off with the annual awards banquet on Thursday night at Ike Hall. Individual qualifying rounds begin on Friday, April 21, with the first beginning at 1 p.m. and the second at 7 p.m. from Christl Arena at the Holleder Center.

The top-three individual finishers in all-around and on each event during each session, who are not already qualified on the team (top three teams qualify) or as an all-around competitor, will advance to Saturday's finals round to begin at 6 p.m.

This is the fourth time in the last six years that the No. 14 Black Knights have sent nine qualifiers to the championships. It will also be the third time in 12 years that Army has hosted NCAAs at West Point.

Leading the way will be Nathan Goff who has qualified as an all-arounder for the first time in his career. He leads the individuals group with a qualifying score of 80.663 and is slated as No. 11 in the country. Last year, Goff represented the Cadets on the parallel bars and high bar at the NCAA Championships and moved forward to the Saturday session on the high bar.

Senior captain Leo Genders is also on the list qualifying for the high bar, in which he leads the field with a 13.950 and is 19th nationally, vault (14.063) and floor exercise (13.500). Genders advanced on high bar at the 2016 NCAA Championships and competed on floor Friday night.

Seth Cannon and Ryan Wilson have also qualified for multiple events. Cannon will represent Army on the floor (13.763) and high bar (13.250), while Wilson will appear on vault (14.088) and rings (13.450). Cannon participated in last year's NCAAs on the floor as Wilson repeats on vault.

Rounding out the rest of Army's field is Elliott Herman, still rings (13.363), Andre Hufnagel (13.375) and Brandon Shively (13.300) on pommel horse, Grant Cullen, parallel bars (13.338) and Alejandro Tombrink (13.288) on high bar.

The Black Knights will have representation on each apparatus when they welcome the teams and individuals to the banks of the Hudson.

Ranked first among the 12 qualifying field is Oklahoma (432.850) along with Stanford (423.288), Ohio State (418.050), Illinois (416.300), Minnesota (414.438) and Penn State (412.725) rounding out the top in rounding out the top six teams.

The Black Knights competed against four of the 12-team field in 2017 including Penn State, Nebraska, Air Force and Navy.

For up-to-date information about the Army West Point gymnastics team, follow @ArmyWP_GYM on Twitter and Instagram.

Nine Gymnasts Qualify for NCAAs Hosted by Army

Players Mentioned

Seth Cannon

Grant Cullen

Leo Genders

Nathan Goff

Elliott Herman

Andre Hufnagel

Brandon Shively

Alejandro Suarez

Ryan Wilson

Army West Point Athletics