Feb. 22, 2012

WEST POINT, N.Y. - Army's gymnastics team hosts Air Force in its first meet of the season at Gross Sports Center Friday evening at 6 p.m. The Black Knights face a tough challenge against a Falcon team that defended its title at the annual All-Academy Championships with Army finishing third last weekend in San Jose, Calif.

Friday's meet will also be carried on ITT Exelis Knight Vision, the official multimedia package of the Army Athletic Association, with Rick Johnston calling the action and Tim Goetz providing the color.

Army, ranked No. 15 in the latest GymInfo poll, holds a 20-12 lead in the all-time series that began in 1962-63, but the Falcons won the last four meets in addition to capturing the All-Academy Championships the last two years.

At last weekend's All-Academy meet held at the San Jose Spartan Gym, the Falcons placed first in five of the six events in outpointing service academy rivals Navy (325.65) and Army (317.6). The only team event that Falcons didn't win was parallel bars with Navy winning the title (53.4) followed by the Black Knights (52.9).

Juniors Jared Breeden and Nicholas Fettinger led Army with second-place performances on vault and parallel bars, respectively. Breeden recorded a season-high 14.25 on vault behind the winning mark of 14.65. He also turned in Army's top marks in two other events. Breeden recorded a 13.55 on floor exercise in besting teammate Chase Brown by five-hundreds of a point, along with posting a 13.95 for his third highest score this season on still rings that earned fifth place.

Fettinger's parallel bars score of 13.45 (his second highest of the season) tied for second-place honors behind the winning mark of 13.7. Freshman Alex Ganz tied with Air Force's Josh Ramos for fifth place in that event with 13.35s as Navy claimed three of the top four spots. Ganz was also third in the all-around scoring with a 76.9, and currently ranks 18th (78.2).

Junior Garrek Hojan-Clark tied for third-place honors on pommel horse with a 13.9 in finishing behind James Okamoto of Air Force's winning mark of 14.6. Hojan-Clark is tied for sixth nationally with a 14.733 average and senior team captain Jonathan Hoey lists 32nd (13.933) with Air Force's Okamoto tied for 20th place (14.2).

The Black Knights head into the meet ranked No. 15 in the latest GymInfo poll with a 322.3 average, while the Falcons are No. 11 (334.25). In the six team events, the Black Knights have the edge over Air Force on pommel horse with a 55.133 average that ranks 11th, while the Falcons list 14th with a 53.833 mark. Air Force's highest team ranking is seventh on still rings where individually Devin Menefee lists eighth (15.067). That is Army's lowest ranking (17th, 53.417) among the six team events.