March 6, 2004
March 6, 2004 - Tonight was the final meet for the Stanford men's gymnastics team in their regular season. It was also the final regular home meet for senior captain Dan Gill. Before the start of the competition, head coach Thom Glielmi and senior national team member and Stanford alumnus Dave Durante presented Dan with an award for his outstanding four years of NCAA competition. Dan Gill's parents has flown if from Texas to watch their son compete, and they greeted him with an emotional embrace on the floor before the meet began. Without a doubt, Dan Gill will be greatly missed as a competitor, leader, and teammate next year.
After this brief ceromony, the competition began with Stanford on floor exercise and Penn State on the pommel horse. Stanford started out with three solid performances by freshman Brice Rolston and juniors Ambert Yeung and Kelly Lang. Sean Doolan was up fourth, and he began his routine with a very difficult first pass and a stuck landing. He continue with a great routine that ended in a front Randy, which is a layout with 2.5 twists. He received a 9.350 and won the event. Dan Gill was up last for the Cardinal, and he performed a beautiful double-double (two back flips with two complete twists) to an immediate punch front flip to his stomach. Although he had a couple falls on his second and fourth passes, he still finished well with an 8.400.
Pommel horse was the second event, and Alex Schorsch started the team out with a very clean, hit routine, scoring an 8.550. Ambert Yeung also had an exceptional performance, complete with good travels and scissor work. His score was an 8.800. To finish off the event, Dan Gill completed a near flawless routine with a scissor sequence and a very controlled Russian travel to Russian dismount. He received an impressive 9.600.
The freshman phenoms stole the show on the still rings. Christian Garnett performed excellent maltese strength positions and stuck his double back dismount. Peter Derman and Alex Schorsch finished up the rotation with world class strength sequences. Peter executed a maltese, bounce cross, pull out to maltese, followed by a back roll to iron cross, scoring a 9.250. Peter not only did a maltese push to planche, but also proceeded to press from the planche all the way up to handstand. This, in combination with another maltese and iron cross, earned him an amazing 9.500 and first place on the event.
Vault saw exceptional performances by sophomore Sean Doolan and Dan Gill. Sean competed a roundoff onto the horse with a back layout and two full twists. He scored a 9.350. Dan Gill, former national champion on the event, posted a 9.750 after competing a Yurchenko vault with 2.5 twists and a near perfect landing.
Both Sean and Dan had good showings on the parallel bars as well. Sean competed a good peach to stutz one bar, earning an 8.700. Dan included a Healy twirl, stutz one bar, and beautiful double pike in his routine. Gill also captured first place on this even with a 9.100.
In the last event, the Cardinal had a good showing on the horizontal bar, with three key routines and two Stanford-only skills. Ambert Yeung performed a Ginger release, inverted giants, and impressive full pirouette work and scored an 8.800. Then, Kelly Lang competed a release that no other NCAA gymnast is doing right now. He did a toe on to immediate layout reverse hecht including a full twist. Although the rest of his routine was a little shaky, this skill was very impressive. After Lang, Nate Downs, who scored a 9.500 last week, managed to beat his personal best with a 9.600 routine of intricately connected pirouette skills, a straddle reverse hecht, and a stuck double layout dismount. However, Dan Gill managed to out do this with a routine, that in my opinion, was perfection. After catching his kovacks release, which is a double back flip over the bar with a full twist, Dan connected a hop 1.5 pirouette to dorsal grip to a one armed giant with another full twist, a seemingly impossible feat. Then, to culminate the routine, he finished with a triple double, or a double layout with three twists, to a stuck landing, a dismount that no one else in the country competes. The crowd loved the performance and were shouting "10!" from the stands, including some of Dan's KA brethren, who came decked out in their own Stanford gymnastics uniforms. The judges awarded Dan a 9.825, which is still a personal best and the winning score of the meet.
Finishing on this exciting event, the Cardinal scored one of its better team all-around scores, a 214.575, and Dan Gill won the all-around with a 55.325. Penn State also did well, and they came out ahead with a 216.350.
Stanford will be hosting the MPSF Regional Championships on March 19th and 20th in Burnham Pavillion. Tickets are still available, so come see Stanford compete against Nebraska, Oklahoma, Air Force, and Cal.