By Carley Crain
@carley_crain12
The men’s gymnastics team competed in its third virtual meet of the season against divisional opponent William and Mary on Sunday afternoon in Dana Gymnasium. Springfield fell to William and Mary, 380.600-369.900, but are hopeful as they head into the second half of the regular season.
“We knew we had a good contender in William and Mary so I think overall it was pretty good and we held in there till the end,” said first-year Charles Kramer. “Finishing the way we did with the falls we had, I would say it was a victory in my eyes.”
This meet marked the halfway point for the Pride’s regular season. For a while they were unsure if they would even compete against William and Mary since their program was originally cut in the fall.
The Pride’s first event of the day was the floor exercise where Kramer continued his strong freshman campaign scoring a 12.700. Sophomore Dominic Ramalho continued to prove his all-around strength scoring a 12.500. The Pride totaled a team score of 60.600 compared to Willam and Mary’s 62.700.
Up next was the pommel horse, which was led by a pair of strong performances by senior Collin Maberry and first-year Colton O’Brien, each scoring 12.500 and 13.250 respectively. The Pride took the win on the pommel horse with a total team score of 60.100.
The still rings were the third event the Pride competed in with leading scorers Trevor Lamberton and John Rowbotham, both scoring a 12.550. William and Mary won the event with a team score of 62.800 while Springfield totaled a score of 61.400.
The Pride then moved on to the vault, which has been their best event so far this season. Ramahlo, Kramer, and Noah Candocia all scored season highs of 14.100, 13.900, and 13.800.
The Pride continued with the parallel bars where Kramer had another strong performance that earned him a score of 12.650. Ramalho, an all-around specialist, contributed with a solid routine, scoring a 12.950.
The last event of the afternoon was the horizontal bar where the Pride achieved a team score of 58.750. Junior Kyle Lukaesko was the highest scorer for Springfield, earning himself a 12.600. First-year David Handron was the second best for the Pride, scoring a 12.250.
“It was kind of a battle right from the beginning. Throughout the day, we train where we know we are not going to be 100 percent on all the time,” said head coach Matt Davis. “It is just how you think and the mentality you have to keep going and if you make a mistake, not having it affect you moving forward.”
“That’s what I saw from the team the whole way through which is a really good sign for the future. When we are really hitting routines it’s going to be a lot of fun. We got some easy corrections we can make in the gym this week.”
The Pride will compete virtually again on Friday, March 5, against Stanford at 7 p.m. in Blake Arena.
Photo courtesy of Jack Margaros