By Liam Reilly
@liampreilly852
On Saturday, April 6, the men’s gymnastics team hosted the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships for the first time in four years. A total of six teams competed in the meet: Army, Greenville, Navy, Simpson, Springfield and William & Mary.
Hosting ECACs in Blake Arena, the team had specific goals in mind.
“Win the cup,” graduate student Dominic Ramalho said. “That’s our big goal, but the most important goal for us is to hit 30 for 30 and qualify as a team in NCAAs.”
The Pride first started out on the parallel bars, then moved onto the horizontal bar. The sophomore gymnasts shined at the start as Sam Kaplan finished fourth on the parallel bars with a score of 13.600, and Owen Carney scored a 13.300 on the horizontal bar, earning fifth place.
Springfield moved onto the floor exercise, where they didn’t have a top six placer. The team bounced back on pommel horse, as Peyton Cramer scored 14.800, winning the event. He became the 17th Springfield College men’s gymnast to win an individual ECAC title since 1932, and just the third member of the Pride ever to win the pommel-horse.
The first-year student from Grapevine, Texas has been impressive for the Pride. Cramer became the first ever first-year Springfield gymnast to receive multiple College Gymnastics Association Rookie of the Week selections in a season. Adding on to Cramer’s impressive résumé was the ECAC Rookie of the Year and Specialist of the Year awards that he was chosen for. Winning both awards was something that Cramer did not see coming.
“There were a lot of really good freshmen, especially from Greenville and Army,” Cramer said. “Winning wasn’t a given as everybody was putting in a lot of hard work.”
Keeping up the momentum from pommel horse, Springfield had two finishers in the top six on the rings as senior David Handron scored 13.150 and sophomore Will Wilson had 13.100. The Pride finished with the vault, which saw Carney and Ramalho tie for fourth at 14.450. In the all-around, Ramalho scored a 76.200 to take third, while Kaplan finished fourth with a 75.300 score.
Kaplan has put up an amazing sophomore season, earning weekly ECAC honors four times this season. At the end of the meet he was named the ECAC men’s gymnast of the year. Hearing his name selected left Kaplan shocked.
“I didn’t really expect it,” Kaplan said. “I thought Matthew Petros from Navy was the clear winner. When I heard my name get called I was putting my stuff away and my jaw dropped. I wasn’t paying attention because I didn’t think I was going to get the award. I was in awe.”
Springfield went on to finish third at the meet with a score of 392.050. They fell behind Greenville’s tally of 393.000 and first place Navy’s 401.450 mark. Head coach Matt Davis was proud of the way his team performed.
“A big thing for us this year was to do what we need to do and not worry about other teams,” Davis said. “The gymnasts really did, right from the start they had high energy and performed what they’re supposed to do at the competition, and there was no nervousness. They attacked routines, stuck together as a group and it was exactly the plan we wanted.”
Davis received the ECAC Coach of the Year award, while his assistant staff was chosen for the ECAC Men’s Gymnastics Co-assistant Coaching Staff of the Year.
Springfield’s next meet will be the NCAA National Collegiate Championships on April 19-20 at the Ohio State University. Despite the meet’s large title, the team is going about practicing for it as they have been all year.
“The approach is going to be the same,” Davis said. “It will be on the national stage but at the end of the day, ultimately it is another meet. Our goal is to go out there and attack routines, have confidence, and have a lot of fun out there.”
Photo courtesy of Springfield College Athletics