INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 13, 2018 – The U.S. Naval Academy will play host to the 2019 USA Gymnastics Men’s Collegiate National Championships, March 29-30. The two-day event was last held at the Academy in 2014. The USA Gymnastics Collegiate Championships has two divisions, varsity and collegiate.
The men’s team and all-around finals, which serve as the event qualifications, are set for March 29, with the event finals on March 30.
“The coaching staff and administration are excited to once again host this prestigious Collegiate National Championships at the Naval Academy in beautiful downtown Annapolis,” said Kip Simons, Navy’s head coach and 1996 Olympian.
The varsity competition is for Division I, II or III, four-year institutions with gymnastics as a varsity sport that provide two or less full scholarships as well as the military academies, and the collegiate team category is for two-year or four-year degree-granting schools with gymnastics as a club sport. Schools in the Varsity Division include the College of William and Mary, Springfield College, U.S. Air Force Academy, and U.S. Naval Academy. The Collegiate Division includes Arizona State University, Northern California United, Southern California United, Temple University and University of Washington.
In 2018, the U.S. Air Force won the Varsity Division team title, with Arizona State University claiming the Collegiate Division team crown. The all-around titles went to Air Force’s Jonah Urlaub for the Varsity Division and ASU’s Kiwan Watts for the Collegiate Division. The event champions were: Nick Garcia, Arizona State University, floor exercise; Fletcher Braunton, U.S. Air Force Academy, pommel horse; Peter Makey, College of William and Mary, still rings; Watts, vault; Tanner West, U.S. Naval Academy, parallel bars; and Lukas Texeira, U.S. Air Force Academy, horizontal bar.
Simons, who was a member of the 1995 Pan American Games gold-medal team, became Navy’s head coach in 2015 and is the event director. At the 2018 Championships, Navy won three medals in addition to West’s parallel bars gold and vault bronze medals: the team bronze medal; Christian Correale, still rings silver; and Max Gerber, high bar bronze.
The USA Gymnastics Collegiate Championships date back to 1983.
Based in Indianapolis, USA Gymnastics is the national governing body for gymnastics in the United States. The organization is committed to creating a culture that encourages and supports its athletes and focuses on its highest priority, the safety and well-being of the athletes. USA Gymnastics has already taken specific, concrete steps to strengthen its safe sport policies and procedures. The organization’s disciplines include men’s and women’s artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline and tumbling, acrobatic gymnastics and gymnastics for all (formerly known as group gymnastics). For more complete information, log on to usagym.org.