Black Knights Win Historic Meet with Niigata University of Management

Wednesday, March 17

West Point, NY

8 PM

Army West Point

369.5

359.3

Niigata University of Management (Virtual)

Black Knights Win Historic Meet with Niigata University of Management

March 17, 2021 | Men's Gymnastics

WEST POINT, N.Y. – The Army West Point men's gymnastics team defeated the Niigata University of Management, a college located in Japan, 369.5-359.3, in a virtual meet inside the Gross Center Wednesday evening. This marked the first international meet in program history.

"This season has been such a rollercoaster. I want to give our guys as many opportunities to compete as possible and so when this idea first came out, I said 'Yeah. Let's do it. Let's figure it out.' We had to get some logistics figured out, but I think the guys had a good time doing it. I felt like it was a worthwhile event," Army head coach Dr. Doug Van Everen said.

The two teams were competing with a 13-hour time difference. Army began the meet at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, while it was 9 a.m. on Thursday in Niigata, Japan.

"Having the opportunity was cool. The platform allows for that. In the future, I see us being able to continue something like this," Van Everen added.

As a team, Army won four of the six events. Three different members had event wins, led by Mathew Davis who claimed the floor exercise and the still rings. Matthew Martin placed first on the pommel horse and Jacob Nauman won vault.

"We did fairly well. We had some good events and some very good performances, but we also counted several falls and so forth. Part of that, too, was that we had to do some moving around before the meet," Van Everen said. "I'm proud of what they did. They work hard. They fought all the way through. It was 10 o'clock and we were swinging high bar, so I'm proud of what they did."

FLOOR EXERCISE

As a team, Army posted a 64.05 in the floor exercise.
Davis turned in the top performance of the meet with a tally of 13.05.
The Black Knights' next highest mark belonged to Graham Shaw whose 13.0 was tied for second.

POMMEL HORSE

The Cadets claimed the pommel horse, 56.65-54.5.
Matthew Martin earned the meet's top score with a tally of 12.85.

STILL RINGS

Army won the still rings, 64.25-58.9.
Davis led the pack in the still rings with a 13.9.
Niigata UM's Kaisei Asada held the second highest mark with a 12.9.

VAULT

Niigata UM narrowly claimed the vault, 67.3-67.15.
Jacob Nauman owned the highest score of the event with a 13.95.
Kiernan Reagan posted the Black Knights' next highest score with a mark of 13.5.

PARALLEL BARS

Army won the parallel bars, 61.85-56.7.
Niigata UM's Hibiki Nagasawa earned the win on the parallel bars with a tally of 12.9.
The Black Knights had the next five highest scores, led by Patrick Armstrong's 12.65.

HORIZONTAL BAR

Niigata UM won the horizontal bars, 59.4-55.55.
Kalvin Kingshill placed second in the event with a tally of 12.3.

UP NEXT
Army's busy week continues on Friday when it takes on service academy foe Air Force in another virtual meet at 6 p.m. Then, on Sunday, the Black Knights will square off with ECAC foe Springfield in its senior day meet, which will also be a virtual competition.