Army West Point Athletics
Gymnastics Team Looking For Strong Showing Sunday
March 06, 2009 | General
WEST POINT, N.Y. Idle since competing at the All-Academy Championships on Valentine’s Day, Army’s gymnastic team opens March with a trip to Springfield, Mass., for a triangular with the Pride and MIT Sunday afternoon. A young Black Knight (0-3) team will be looking for its first win of the season.
Springfield College, is ranked 16th with a 328.167 average in the latest GymInfo polls with Army listed 18th (316.317) followed by No. 19 MIT (311.467).
The Pride is ranked higher than the Black Knights and Engineers in five of the six team events with Army listing ahead of that group with a 52.733 average and No. 16 ranking on pommel horse. Springfield lists 18th (51.05) and MIT is 19th (50.20) in that event.
The Pride’s highest ranking is floor exercise where is lists 11th with a 56.983 average. It is also 13th (54.983) on high bar and 14th on vault (60.483). Army is close behind the Pride on vault with a 59.167 average.
In Army’s last outing at the All-Academy Championships, Justin Sappington placed third on pommel horse and Kelson Lumpkin took fourth on floor exercise as the Black Knights posted a team mark of 312.9 to trial Navy (335.05) and Air Force (330.8).
Lumpkin and Sappington both scored a 14.0 turning in career highs on floor exercise and pommel horse, respectively. Lumpkin broke his former mark of 13.45 set last year against Penn State, while Sappington nixed the 13.85 he recorded against Air Force in 2008.
Following Sunday’s meet, Army returns home to close out its regular season hosting Springfield, William & Mary along with Iowa.
The Black Knights are also the host school for the ECAC Championships for the second straight year. The meet will be held at Gross Sports Center the first weekend in April (3-4). Temple is the defending champion followed by William & Mary.
