WEST POINT, N.Y. - Idle since finishing fourth two weeks ago at the 17th annual West Point Open, Army’s gymnastics team  will be looking to record its first win over the season when it hosts service-academy rival Air Force Friday evening at Gross Sports Center.

The Black Knights have captured the last 15 meetings against their counterparts from Colorado to pull out to a commanding 20-8 lead in the all-time series. Army will be looking for its fifth straight win over Air Force at Gross Center since posting the inaugural win over the Falcons at the facility’s dedication six years ago.

No. 15 ranked Army is averaging 331.85 as a team, while the No. 16 Falcons show a 323.425 mark. In the team event scoring, the Black Knights has the highest marks in four of the six disciplines. Two of the events are close with Army holding a slight 59.900-59.875 edge on vault and the Falcons leading by a slim 55.325-55.275 margin on floor exercise.

Air Force  has a 55.425-54.400 lead over Army on still rings, but the Black Knights hold the advantage on pommel horse (52.725-49.350), parallel bars (55.075-53.10) and high bar (54.500-51.025) where they are ranked in the Top 13 nationally.

Individually, Army’ senior Mike Assenmacher and Air Force’s Greg Stine will be battling each other for the all-around title. Assenmacher is sporting an 82.25 average to rank No. 20 in the nation and Stine’s 81.90 lists 22nd.

While Stine’s 14.525 on still rings ranks 22nd and is the highest average in that event, Assenmacher has the top three marks among the five remaining individual events being contested. He stands 22nd on floor exercise (14.750), 42nd on parallel bars (13.925) and shares 46th on pommel horse (13.25) with teammate Kevin Mead.

Senior Tim Burns is the leader on high bar (14.15), ranking 25th, while sophomore Ty Smith has the highest average of 15.00 on vault.

In the Black Knights’ last outing at the West Point Open, Burns and Jonathan Grey medaled in the finals. Burns was fourth on high bar and Grey placed fifth on pommel horse.

Army (0-1) and Air Force (0-4) are both looking for their first win of the young season after making their 2008  debuts in January. The Black Knights fell to NCAA defending champion Penn State, 358.50-333.60, in their season opener, while the Falcons finished third in a triangular with No. 6 Oklahoma and No. 12 Nebraska last weekend after ushering in their season with a third-place finish at the Rocky Mountain Open.

The two service academies will face off again on Feb. 17 when they join Navy at the All-Academy Championships in Laguna Beach, Calif.  Army will be looking to capture its eighth straight title, but will be challenged to repeat as Navy finished a spot ahead of the Black Knights at the West Point Open

All three schools will be part of the field at the USA Gymnastics Collegiate National Championships being hosted by Springfield April 18-19