Saturday’s Army-Navy gymnastics meet, which determines which of the rivals wins the coveted Star, begins with the floor exercise.
Host Navy is fortunate to have an All-American performer in that event. If all goes according to plan, senior Syam Buradagunta will win the floor to get the Midshipmen off to a strong start.
“Floor exercise set the tone for the entire meet. Syam is our floor captain and the leader of that group,” Navy coach Kip Simon said. “It’s comforting to know we have Syam doing his best event right out of the gate.”
Navy has dominated the Star competition in gymnastics, beating Army five straight seasons. Buradagunta and the rest of the Navy seniors don’t know what it’s like to lose to the archrival, and they certainly don’t want to find out.
“Beating Army means everything. We’ve been talking about this meet since the first day of school,” Buradagunta said. “Everything we’ve done since day one has been about February 3rd. I don’t think me and my classmates could even fathom losing this meet. That’s not even an option.”
The Midshipmen come into the biggest meet of the season on a roll, having performed well in placing second at both the West Point Open and the Navy Open, beating fifth-ranked Penn State in the latter event. No. 8 Navy posted an impressive score of 396 1/2 points in beating William & Mary in a dual meet last Saturday.
“We’ve had a really good start to the season. Army is going to be well-coached and well-prepared. We just have to execute our plan and hit our routines,” said Simon, who believes a score of 395 would be enough to win the Star for a sixth straight season.
Buradagunta is also a good bet to place on pommel horse as he is Navy’s second-best performer in that event behind classmate Ronan McQuillan. The Westborough, Massachusetts native will also compete in the high bar and vault.
Beating Army is just one of the goals Buradagunta set for this season. He wrote them all down in a notebook and plans to check each off the list, one at a time. Topping the list is becoming just the sixth two-time All-American in Navy gymnastics history.
Eric Swanson was the program’s last two-time All-American, earning that distinction in 1972 and 1973 on pommel horse. Navy went more than three decades without having another gymnast earn All-American honors by placing eighth or better at the NCAA Championships.
That drought was ended in resounding fashion last season as both Buradagunta and Isiaiah Drake became All-Americans. Buradagunta placed eighth in the floor exercise, while Drake placed eighth in the all-around competition.
Buradagunta not only wants to repeat as an All-American in the floor exercise, he wants to do so with a podium placement. He also wants to make the event final and be in All-American contention on pommel horse.
If Buradagunta becomes an All-American in two events, it would go a long way toward achieving his two other goals for this season: being named Navy’s Most Valuable Performer and being a finalist for the Nissen-Emery Award as the nation’s top senior gymnast.
“Syam has gotten better and better every season and been a real superstar for this program,” said Simon, who won the Nissen-Emery Award as a senior at Ohio State. “Syam is a great athlete, a fierce competitor and a real gamer. He is always ready to perform when the bright lights come on.”
Buradagunta is the product of Massachusetts Elite Gymnastics, a powerful club program operated by a pair of legendary coaches in Levon Karakhanyan and Cal Booker. MEG has consistently developed top college talent and three of Buradagunta’s teammates — Matt Cormier (Penn State), Yan Inhaber (Illinois) and Dan Clark (Navy) — are competing at the Division I level.
“I owe a lot to those two coaches. From the day I walked into the gym at a young age they had their sights set on turning me into a successful NCAA gymnast,” Buradagunta said of Karakhanyan and Booker. “A lot of great collegiate gymnastics have come through their pipeline because they have such an outstanding development plan.”
Buradagunta had surgical procedures performed on both wrists during the summer between his junior and senior seasons. That caused several top programs to stop recruiting him, but Navy never wavered. Assistant coach Craig Holt is a Massachusetts native and was confident the MEG coaching staff would expertly manage Buradagunta’s rehabilitation.
“Some schools backed off, but Kip and Craig had seen me compete for multiple years and never doubted I would come back. Navy showed a lot of faith in me and I appreciated that,” Buradagunta said.
Before suffering the wrist injuries, pommel horse had been Buradagunta’s specialty. After the surgeries, he chose to focus more on floor exercise. However, he continued to compete on pommel horse and still performs at a high level in that event.
“I see that as a real testament of who Syam is. It’s not easy to come back from those surgeries and still do an event like the pommel horse,” Simon said. “He and Ronan have been the backbone of a really good pommel horse group for us this season.”
Buradagunta emerged as one of Navy’s top gymnasts as a sophomore, reaching the NCAA championship event finals on pommel horse, vault high bar and floor exercise. Last season, he elected to place increased focus on floor exercise, believing there was an opening to earn All-American honors in that particular event.
“Syam had done the research and decided he was going to be an All-American on the floor. He put in a lot of effort to get that routine stronger and stronger,” Simon said. “Syam is very methodical and knows the competition. He saw the potential to increase the degree of difficulty of his floor routine and make more of an impact.”
Simon said the key to improving a floor exercise routine is to add an extra twist or flip a little higher. Buradagunta did that to some extent, but ultimately worked hardest on the most important element of the routine.
“On the floor it’s all about landings. You’re going to land five or six times over the course of a floor routine. Syam spent a lot of time on sticking landings,” Simon said.
As it turned out, a minor ankle injury late in the season might have been a blessing in disguise. Buradagunta had been practicing a very difficult routine and the ankle issue forced him to tone it down.
“I wound up doing a routine that was slightly less difficult, which probably was a good thing. Honestly, it made my routine much cleaner and I was able to execute much better,” he said.
Buradagunta loves playing basketball almost as much as competing in gymnastics. He plays pickup ball in Halsey Field House or on the outdoor courts near the eighth wing of Bancroft Hall and has publicly declared himself “the best basketball player among ECAC gymnasts.”
Simon has appointed Buradagunta as Navy’s recruiting captain because “he has such a great personality and relates to people so well.”
Buradagunta is set to graduate from the Naval Academy with a degree in operations research and has received supply corps as a service selection. He is hoping to take advantage of a unique opportunity provided by COVID.
Because the NCAA has granted all athletes an extra year of eligibility because of the pandemic, Buradagunta has the ability to continue college gymnastics and hopes to do so next season at Michigan.
Buradagunta has been accepted into the Supply Chain Management Program that is part of the Ross School of Business at Michigan. Legendary coach Yuan Xiao is very familiar with the Navy gymnast and has said he would be a welcome addition to the Michigan program, which is currently ranked fourth nationally.
“The skills I would pick up through my graduate degree, such as logistics and resource management strategies, are very applicable to my Navy job,” said Buradagunta, who is awaiting final approval from higher ups with the United States Navy.