Air Force Academy
NCAA National Qualifier
Three Falcons Advance at NCAA Championships
4/20/2018 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
Results | NCAA Championships, National Qualifier 
CHICAGO – Senior Jonathon Fornoff, junior Eric Klein and freshman Ethan Esval registered top-10 individual finishes this afternoon (April 20), as the 11th-ranked Air Force men's gymnastics team opened its national championship weekend with a sixth-place finish at the NCAA National Qualifier in Chicago.
Fornoff recorded a score of 13.966 to tie for third on the parallel bars, while Klein recorded the same placement on the high bar with a score of 13.833. Esval, competing in his first NCAA event, captured a pair of top-10 marks, as he finished eighth on the still rings with a 13.633 and tied for that same finish on the parallel bars behind a mark of 13.733. With their placement as one of the top-three finishers not on an advancing team or as an all-around qualifier, the trio earned spots in tomorrow's individual event finals.
The Falcons earned three additional top-20 finishes on those events, as junior Lukas Texeira placed 14th on the high bar (13.366) and freshmen Frankie Valentin and Zach Polen finished 18th on the still rings (13.133) and parallel bars (13.466), respectively.
Air Force accounted for multiple top-20 finishes on the pommel horse, as senior Fletcher Braunton and Valentin finished 15th (12.766) and 19th (12.566), respectively. The junior pair of Jonah Urlaub and Ryan Girouard rounded out the Falcons' event leaders, as Urlaub tied for 16th on the vault (14.133) and Girouard finished 20th on the floor exercise (13.333).
Sixth-ranked Stanford won the afternoon session with a score of 407.390, while second-ranked Minnesota and seventh-ranked Nebraska finished second (404.758) and third (402.690), respectively, to advance into the team finals. Third-ranked Michigan finished fourth with a score of 400.590, while 10th-ranked Navy (fifth, 390.921) and the 11th-ranked Falcons (sixth, 385.688) rounded out the team standings.
The 2018 season comes to a close tomorrow (April 21), with the team and event finals of the NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships. Action begins at 6:00 p.m. (CT) inside the Pavilion on the UIC campus.
Players Mentioned
