Text Book 20-5 Season Ends with Championship Success--The William & Mary gymnasts completed a text book season as they progressively got stronger and healthier throughout the course of a 20-5 dual meet season, culminating in a season high 404.7 score that resulted in
a victory at the ECAC Championship. The team’s fantastic performance at ECAC’s was enough to cement a 13
th place ranking in the NCAA and qualify a record 11 individuals to the NCAA Championships (the winning team at the ECAC no longer qualifies automatically).
The two biggest awards at the championship also went to William & Mary as Coach Mike Powell received ECAC Coach of the Year honors while Rob Meyer was selected the Senior Athlete of the Year. As the winning team, the Tribe brought home the traveling Intercollegiate Championship Trophy from the Conference Championship. This incredible trophy is one of the oldest in American sport dating back to Dartmouth’s win in 1927 (Penn won the first championship in 1926). It stands over 31 inches high, weighs over 30 pounds, and is shaped similar to hockey’s Stanley Cup.
Three ECAC Event Champions: Sophomores Jacopo Gliozzi on pommel horse and Peter Makey on rings not only set personal scoring records but also took home the gold medal on their favorite events. Senior Neal Courter became a three time conference vaulting champion with his excellent season high performance. Silver medalists included Rob Meyer on the parallel bars, (All-ECAC on PH, R), Nick Van Dyke on vaulting, and Neal on both floor exercise and high bar. Freshman Tomas Palma earned the bronze medal on floor exercise while All-ECAC honors went to Griffin Antle on pommel horse, Jeremiah McReynolds on rings, Juan Palma on vaulting, and Aria Sabbagh on high bar.
USA Gymnastics Collegiate Championship Finishes with 10 W&M All-American Desigantions and a Repeat National Champion on the Parallel Bars-—After finishing second behind Air Force, the Tribe gymnasts went on to hit 10 out of 10 routines in the pressurized Individual Finals. Beyond this, each of these routines finished in the top six to earn All-American status. Senior co-captain Rob Meyer was the highlight of this fantastic effort, defending his national event title on the parallel bars with another one of his typically precise routines that finished with his patented stuck double pike dismount. Rob also managed to earn two more All-American honors by finishing third on pommel horse and fourth on the rings. Fellow senior captain, Aria Sabbagh matched Rob with a series of outstanding performances that also resulted in three All-American finishes as he placed second on the high bar, fourth in the all-around, and sixth on the parallel bars. Sophomore, Peter Makey muscled his way to a second straight All-American designation on the rings by tying Rob in the finals for fourth. Another sophomore, David Allen, proved for the second year in a row that championship season is David’s time to shine as he rose to the occasion to earn All-American honors on high bar and in the all-around with fifth and sixth place finishes, respectively. Freshman Tim O’Neill who has been a force on vault all season, received his first USAG Collegiate All-American designation by finishing fifth in the finals. Finally, following in the tradition of William & Mary leadership, rising senior Griffin Antle was elected by his peers to replace graduating teammate Aria Sabbagh as the student-athlete representative to the USA Gymnastics Men’s Collegiate Gymnastics Committee.
A Huge Presence for W&M at the NCAA Championships—On the first day of competition, the Tribe had a record 11 Individuals competing: Seniors Aria Sabbagh (AA), Neal Courter (FX, HB), Rob Meyer (PH, R, PB), and Nick Van Dyke (VT); juniors Jeremiah McReynolds (R), Griffin Antle (PH, PB), and Juan Palma Alvarado (VT); sophomores Jacopo Gliozzi (PH), Peter Makey (R); and freshmen Tim O’Neill (VT), Tomas Palma Alvarado (FX) From this group’s efforts, Aria Sabbagh and Jacopo Gliozzi qualified to the NCAA Finals, while freshman Tim O’Neill tied for the last qualifying spot on vault only to loose the tie-break based on the National Qualifying Average score. Aria went on to place 17
th in the all-around while
Jacopo Gliozzi went on to earn NCAA All-American honors with a sixth place finish on his very innovative pommel horse routine. Jacopo’s routine included Russian skills on one pommel, between the pommels, on the end, and traveling across the horse.
Watch Jacopo’s routine. Jacopo joins an ever expanding club of William & Mary gymnasts who have earned NCAA All-American honors: Ramon Jackson (national parallel bars champion and vaulting All-American), Scott McCall (national rings champion), Sebronzik Wright (silver medalist on vaulting), Landon Funiciello (silver medalist on rings), Neal Courter (bronze medalist on vaulting), and Tom Serena (vaulting All-American).
Each year on the evening preceding the competition, the NCAA sponsors an athletes’ banquet as a welcome to the Championships. In 2015, the NCAA Gymnastics Committee initiated the selection of a student-athlete to serve as one of the principal speakers for the banquet. This year,
the committee selected team captain Rob Meyer to serve as the NCAA Banquet student-athlete speaker. He opened the Championships with a masterful speech describing what men’s gymnastics at the collegiate level is all about. Rob really knocked the ball out of the park, just like fellow captain Michael Deitz did two years earlier as the first student-athlete speaker to be selected for the athletes’ banquet.
Here is the link to Rob’s speech.
The Banquet’s ceremonies also presented Senior Neal Courter as a Nissen-Emery Award Finalist. The Nissen-Emery Award is presented annually to the top senior gymnast in the United States and is the highest honor a gymnast can receive much like the Heisman Trophy in football. It acknowledges gymnastics excellence and more, as the award winner must also be an example of good sportsmanship and fair play, a champion in defeat as well as in victory and must maintain a high standard of scholarship throughout his college career. Neal joins an elite group of NIssen-Emery Award Finalists from William & Mary: David Williams 1992, Sebronzik Wright 1995, Scott McCall 1997, Jamie Northrup 2004, Ramon Jackson 2006, Derek Gygax 2010, and Landon Funiciello 2014.
Watch Neal’s video submission.
Other banquet presentations included the Collegiate Gymnastics Association’s honoring Coach
Cliff Gauthier with the Special Service Award for establishing and overseeing the Academic All-American Scholar-Athlete Awards for the past 27 years. And finally, proving that he is the very definition of a true student-athlete,
Jacopo Gliozzi lost the tie-break for
the Elite 90 Award, given to the athlete at each NCAA Finals site with the highest GPA. Jacopo’s 4.0 GPA tied with Penn State’s Noah Robberson, who won with more credits earned at his current institution.
After Three Straight National Academic Team Titles, W&M Gymnasts Finish Third - Once again the Tribe gymnasts preserved the scholar-athlete tradition that has become a significant part of the culture of William & Mary gymnastics by combining for a 3.45 team grade point average and finishing third in the College Gymnastics Association’s national academic standings. In 2014, we won the national academic team title with a record breaking 3.62 combined grade point and then followed it up with additional titles in 2015 with a 3.46 and 2016 with a 3.51. The Tribe has an impressive run of five titles in the last seven years (we placed second to Stanford in 2013 after winning in 2012 with a 3.53). We now have eight championships—more than any other university in men’s gymnastics. We also won the national titles in 1991, 1992, 2002, and 2008. Additionally, we placed second in 1994, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2009, and 2013 and third in 1999, 2006, 2011, and 2017. The team award was first initiated by the College Gymnastics Association in 1991.
William & Mary gymnasts have also received more individual All-American Scholar-Athlete designations from the College Gymnastics Association than gymnasts from any other university. Academically, the senior class of Mat Turnansky (math), Aria Sabbagh (neuroscience), Rob Meyer (government), Neal Courter (French and chemistry) and Nick Van Dyke (economics) once again led the way as they combined for an impressive 3.667 grade point. The junior class jumped from fourth last year to second this year as Mitchell Campbell (applied math and finance), Griffin Antle (English), Jeremiah McReynolds (computer science), Jake Feldmann (neuroscience), Jake Honsberger (economics), and Juan Palma (kinesiology and health sciences) tallied a combined 3.431 grade point to narrowly edge out the sophomore class of Jacopo Gliozzi (physics and math), David Allen (math), Peter Makey (government and English), Jack Hasenkopf (kinesiology and health sciences), and David Watkins (kinesiology and health sciences) at 3.427. The freshmen class of Nate Winneg (leaning toward physics), Tim O’Neill (science oriented), and Tomas Palma (neuroscience) ended up fourth while combining for a credible 3.189.
Mitchell and Mat (he has published four articles in math) each achieved a 4.0 semester while Jacopo managed an impressive 4.0 both semesters. During the course of the year Mitchell, Jacopo, Mat, Jake F, Jake H, Rob, and Juan each earned the highest grade point of their careers. Another incredible achievement was that nine of our gymnasts earned Provost Awards given each year to varsity athletes with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.50: Aria (4
th Provost Award), Mat (4
th), Neal (4
th), Mitchell (3
rd), David A (2
nd), Peter (2
nd), Jacopo (2
nd), Rob Meyer (1
st), and Nate Winneg (1
st)
A Sweep of the Rock and Mister Awards--For the past 43 years the Rock Award has been presented to the gymnast that could always be counted on when the going got tough. The Rock recipient is often the hardest working gymnast or the gymnast who had to overcome significant obstacles to his success. Each year this treasured award is passed from Rock to Rock in a season ending ceremony. This year, the Rock Award was presented to Rob Meyer, who showed all of us how to work hard, overcome adversity, and enjoy sport all at the same time. Rob was the engine that drove the hard work this year, propelling the team to great heights. Since Rob is a senior, a Pebble Award was given to freshman Tim O’Neill, who is now entrusted with the responsibility of giving out next year’s Rock. Both awards were presented by last year’s Pebble, Jacopo Gliozzi.
Since 1987 the prestigious Mister Award has been given to the member of the team who in the eyes of his teammates is most inspirational to and responsible for the team’s character and success. Based on voting by the team, this year’s Mister Award was also awarded to Rob Meyer giving him a clean sweep of both the Rock and Mister Awards. While several gymnasts have won both awards throughout their careers, only David Williams (1991), Joe Downs (1999), Ramon Jackson (2006), and now Rob Meyer have won both in the same year. Additionally, the Pete Walker “Fruits of My Labor” prize was presented to Coach Mike Powell for his work as the assistant coach and transition to head coach. The Captain America Hero Award was passed from Griffin Antle to David Allen.
Moves in the All-Time Records—Every season gymnastics continues to evolve and our record books continue to be re-written. Four of our graduating seniors finished their careers with a huge presence in our All-Time Top Ten: Neal Courter 1
st on floor exercise and vault, and 2
nd on high bar; Nick Van Dyke 3
rd on vault and 4
th on rings: Rob Meyer 3
rd on parallel bars and tied for 7
th on rings; and Aria Sabbagh 4
th in the all-around and 8
th on high bar. Ten of our returning gymnasts have also carved out positions in our All-Time Top Ten Records: Jacopo Gliozzi (1-PH supplanting Jason Wang), Griffin Antle (3-PH), Juan Palma (4-FE, 6-V), Mitchell Campbell (4-PB), Tim O’Neill (4-VT), Jeremiah McReynolds (7-R), Jack Hasenkopf (8-AA, 9-VT), Tomas Palma (8-FE), Peter Makey (9-R), David Allen (10-AA). Finally, in addition to these individual efforts, the Floor Exercise, Vaulting, and Parallel Bar squads set new All-Time Event Records this year.
William & Mary All Sports Awards Banquet (The Griffy’s)— Each year the Student Athletic Advisory Committee presents a community service award to a male and a female athlete. This year the SAAC honored the entire men’s gymnastics team as a finalist for this award for their work in the community ranging from volunteering in our Saturday kids gymnastics program and conducting (under the direction of Mitchell Campbell) the Williamsburg awareness and fund raising walk for the National Eating Disorders Association to collecting over 3000 pounds of food and blankets during our annual canned food drive which has now gone well over 20,000 pounds of goods since we started collection in 2007. The SAAC also announced senior Rob Meyer as the recipient of the President’s Award for men’s gymnastics.Freshman Nate Winneg was a finalist for the Comeback Kid Award for his successful return to pommel horse just in time for championship season.
One of the highlights of the Griffy’s was an extended recognition of Cliff Gauthier for his 43 years of service at William & Mary. The organizers put together a fantastic video highlighting some of Cliff’s many achievements, but more importantly, the impact that he has had on the lives of athletes. Central to the video was alumnus Michael Deitz’s story of losing his mother in college and the support he received from Cliff and the team. The video was immediately followed by a lengthy standing ovation for Cliff and can be found on our Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/WMTribeMGYM/videos/?ref=page_internal
Neal Courter Announced as the Tribe Club’s 2017 Senior Male Athlete of the Year—Not only did Neal receive designation as the Senior Male Athlete of the Year from William & Mary’s Tribe Club but he was also a finalist for the coveted Nissen-Emery Award which is given each year to the outstanding senior collegiate gymnast at the NCAA Championships. Neal’s gymnastics accomplishments include being a three-time National Champion, twice on vaulting and once on floor exercise, at the USA Gymnastics Collegiate Championships. He also earned six USA Gymnastics Collegiate All-American designations—two on floor exercise, two on vaulting, and two on high bar. At the ECAC Conference Championships, Neal earned two indiividual event titles on floor exercise and two more on vaulting to go along with six All-ECAC awards on three different events. In addition to earning NCAA All-American honors on vaulting, Neal’s top scores ranked him number one in the all-time William & Mary records on both floor exercise and vaulting and number two on the high bar. Along the way, Neal received the gymnastics team’s Rock Award given to the hardest worker who can always be counted on when the going gets tough as well as the Bruce Davidson Award given to W&M’s outstanding rising senior scholar-athlete. Academically, Neal also excelled as he earned four W&M Provost Awards given to varsity athletes who earned over a 3.5 cumulative grade point average to go along with four first team Academic All-American Scholar-Athlete Awards from the College Gymnastics Association while completing a double major in French and chemistry.
