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                         March 8, 2002

By Mady Salvani
Asst. Dir., Athletic Media Relations

Navy’s sweep of the final high bar event clinched a 205.2-204.1 win over Army in the annual gymnastics meet between the two service academies Saturday evening at Macdonough Hall in Annapolis, Md.

Navy, posting its first win over Army in two years in the "Star" meet, improved to 7-2. The Black Knights, who defeated the Mids and Air Force for the second straight year at the Service Academy meet last week, slipped to 6-3.

The two schools split the six team events, but the Mids had four of the individual winners along with the top all-arounder in Dan Finnegan, who was first in three events.

Junior Matt Eckerman set a season-high 9.0 on floor exercise as Army captured three of the top four places in the first event to jump out to a 35.05-34.50 lead. Navy claimed the individual winners in the next three events, with Finnegan winning twice, to take the lead and was never headed.

After three events, the Mids led by 6/10s of a points, but junior Dustin Greenhill’s 8.5 first place finish on the next to last event, parallel bars, drew the Black Knights to 25/100s of a point to trail 171.25-171.00. Greenhill was also runner-up on vault and his 9.1 was Army’s highest score of the meet.

The Mids held off the Black Knights by sweeping the top three places on the final high bar event with Finnegan and Josh Blackman tying for first place honors with identical 8.6s.

"We did not perform well under pressure tonight and it proved costly," said a disappointed Doug Van Everen of Army. "We have to regroup and close out the season strong."

The Black Knights host Massachusetts tonight at Gross Center in their final home meet of the season starting at 6 p.m.