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Navy Heads to Temple for Regular Season Finale

Midshipmen heads to Philadelphia with a 9-9 mark and No. 15 ranking in the country

	Christopher Tam ranks 18th nationally in thee all-around

March 16, 2007

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Navy gymnastics team will round out its 2007 regular season with a dual meet at Temple on Saturday at 2 p.m. in McGonigle Hall. The Midshipmen will enter Saturday's action with a 9-9 mark, while the Owls sport a 13-3 record.

The two teams have met each other on one prior occasion this season at the West Point Open on Jan. 26, as Temple scored 199.5 points to finish ahead of Navy's 190.25 points.

Saturday's meet will feature four all-around gymnasts ranked among the top 20 in the nation. Navy junior Christopher Tam (Draper, Utah) ranks 18th in the country with a placing score of 49.567 points. He has scored 48.0 points or more during five of his seven meets on the year, posting an 8.0 in each of the six disciplines during the same meet twice. Temple's Sterling Kramer (ninth, 51.0 points), John Vogtman (12th, 50.7 points) and Luke Vexler (14th, 50.467 points) represent the home contingent ranking in the top 20.

Tam's best event this year has proven to be the high bar, where he ranks 23rd in the country with a 9.067 scoring average. The Navy junior has scored higher than a 9.0 in two of the last-three meets, recording a season-best 9.2 at the All-Academy Championship last month. Two weeks ago, he registered a 9.1 on the high bar to place third against Penn State and William & Mary. With Tam guiding the way, Navy enters the weekend with a higher team scoring average on the high bar (33.6 points) than Temple (33.083 points).

The parallel bars looks to be an event that will be closely contested, as Temple owns a slight advantage in its team scoring average over Navy (33.6 points vs. 33.117 points). Sophomore Joseph Atzenbeck (Broomfield, Colo.) has scored above an 8.0 in all four tries at the event this season to lead the way for the Midshipmen. For Temple, Kramer and Vogtman each own a ranking score within 0.25-point of Atzenbeck. The Navy sophomore also leads the Mids in scoring on the pommel horse with an average score of 8.35. Two weeks ago, Atzenbeck registered a season-best score of 8.4 on the apparatus to finish third.

Navy junior Brandon Cook (Longmont, Colo.) tops the squad in disciplines heading into Saturday's dual meet. Cook owns an average score of 9.0 in the floor exercise to rank 45th nationally, following his 9.1-point performance two weeks ago at William & Mary. Cook also heads the group on the vault with an 8.367-point ranking score and has earned higher than an 8.0 in all six of his competitions.

Classmate Rich Mehlmann (Bristol, R.I.) rounds out the events with an 8.617 average tally on the still rings this season. Tam is on the heels of Mehlmann with an 8.533 ranking average, while senior team captain Sean Blackman (Fayetteville, Ga.) is working his way back on the rings following an injury that sidelined him for much of the first half of the year.

Following this weekend's regular season finale, the Midshipmen will head down to Williamsburg, Va., to take part in the USAG Collegiate Championship. At last year's championship in Ithaca, N.Y., Navy finished second out of five teams.