Air Force Takes Second at All-Academy Championships

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Senior Jonah Urlaub and sophomore Ethan Esval captured event titles, as the 13th-ranked Air Force men's gymnastics team earned a runner-up finish at the All-Academy Championships this afternoon (Feb. 9) in Annapolis. The Falcons tallied a season-high 402.900 – the ninth-highest team total in program history – to split the annual meet with 10th-ranked Navy (408.500) and 12th-ranked Army West Point (396.400)

Urlaub registered a career-best mark of 14.500 – the sixth-best score in program history – to win the vault by 0.150 points, while Esval posted a career-best score of 14.050 – the program's ninth-highest score – to finish first on the parallel bars by 0.100. The senior team captain also paced the Falcons on the pommel horse (second, 13.800) and still rings (second, 13.900), while adding a top-nine finish on the parallel bars (seventh, 13.700), and Esval accounted for an additional top-nine placement, as he tied for sixth on the vault after registering a score of 13.450.

Senior Ryan Girouard was the Falcons' top finisher on the floor exercise, as he matched his career-high – and the sixth-best score in Academy history – to finish sixth, and the high bar duo of senior Christian Kalustian and sophomore Frankie Valentin recorded matching marks of 13.600 to lead the Falcons in a tie for third on that event and round out the squad's event leaders.

Urlaub's runner-up finish on the pommel horse paced Air Force to four of the top-eight scores on that event. Valentin finished fifth with a tally of 13.250, while classmates Scott McMurray and Zach Polen tied for seventh with matching scores of 13.100. Valentin added a fourth-place score of 14.100 on the vault, while Polen also finished among the top of the field on the parallel bars after recording a third-place score of 13.850.

Kalustian and freshman Nathan Reed also finished among the top-half of the 18-gymnast fields on the floor exercise (eighth, 13.900) and parallel bars (seventh, 13.300), respectively.

The Falcons are off from competition until Saturday, Feb. 23, when the return to the East Coast for a rematch with Navy and a meeting with Penn State in State College.

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