ANNAPOLIS, Md. (March 28, 2014) – The 12th-ranked William and Mary men's gymnastics team claimed the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference team title at the league's championship hosted by Navy on Friday afternoon. In doing so, the squad secured an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, which will be hosted by Michigan from April 10-12.

W&M earned the program's fourth ECAC championship with a winning score of 424.05 and was followed by No. 13 Army (419.1), No. 14 Navy (413.8), Springfield (407.1), Temple (406.85) and Illinois-Chicago (399.45).

In addition to the team portion of the competition, the individual all-around finals were held as senior Daniel Potemski (85.1) and junior J.J. Jindra (82.85) both earned all-conference honors by placing second and fourth, respectively.

Additionally, eight Tribe gymnasts combined to qualify for 17 individual event finals spots. Potemski qualified in a team-high four events: floor (14.4), rings (14.5), vault (14.9 – career high) and parallel bars (14.4 – season high), while Jindra (rings, 14.6; parallel bars, 13.85; high bar, 13.9) and sophomore Neal Courter (floor, 14.85; vault, 14.9; high bar, 14.4) both advanced in three events.

Senior Landon Funiciello (floor, 14.6; rings, 16.25) and junior Michael Deitz (vault, 14.55; high bar, 14.55) also qualified in two events apiece. Funiciello's score on rings ranks as the second-best mark in school history and nearly matched the program's standard (16.4) that he established earlier this season.

Senior Sam Patterson (parallel bars, 14.05), junior Jason Wang (pommel horse, 14.6) and junior Peter Ten Eyck (pommel horse, 14.6) all advanced in one event.

En route to posting the winning team score, W&M earned a school record on floor (72.15) and registered a season-high on vault (72.45).

The individual finals will get underway on Saturday at 2 p.m., and the top six scorers in each event will earn all-conference honors.