April 2, 2004
April 2, 2004 - Stanford traveled to University of Illinois this weekend for the 2004 NCAA Championships. The setup of the NCAA competition includes three days: prelims, team and individual all around finals, and event finals. At the qualifying meet, the twelve teams are placed in two sessions of six depending on their national rankings. Stanford competed in the second session against University of California Berkeley, Ohio State, Illinois, Minnesota, and Nebraska. The team finised fourth with a score of 214.600, but only the top three teams, which included Cal (220.875), Ohio State (219.625), and Illinois (218.525), progress to tomorrow's team finals. However, a number of Stanford gymnasts will have the opportunity to compete for individual titles tomorrow and potentially Sunday at the event finals.
Beginning the competition on vault, sophomore Sean Doolan scored a 9.200, which earned him a tie for 15ht place. Previous national champion on this event, Dan Gill maintained his reputation with a 9.550 score and the top place on this event for the meet.
Parallel bars was the second rotation. Nate Downs and Dan Gill had the best performances for the team on this event. Nate scored a 8.700, which put him in 11th place and secured him a spot in tomorrow's competition on that event. Dan Gill ended up in 8th with a score of 8.825. Sean Doolan will advance on parallel pars tomorrow with Nate as well. He scored an 8.600 on the event.
The third event was horizontal bar. This is another strong event for both Nate and Dan. Nate scored an 8.975 and received 13th place honors. Dan also had a good performance and scored a 9.575, tieing for 3rd on the event.
Floor exercise was next and two more Stanford gymansts will compete on this event again tomorrow because of their exceptional performances tonight. Sean Doolan scored a 9.425, and Dan received a 9.500. These routines placed Sean in 9th and Dan in 8th.
Brice Rolston and Dan Gill had two good showings on the fifth event, pommel horse. Freshman Rolston scored an 8.900, which was a good score but not enough to earn him a spot in Saturday's competition. Dan finished 5th on th event with a 9.525.
The sixth and final event was the still rings. This event had three stand out performances from the Stanford team. Freshman strong men Peter Derman and Alex Schorsh both earn spots as individual competitors on the event tomorrow. Peter scored a 9.500 and finished 2nd, and Alex scored a 9.325 and earned 5th place. Another Stanford gymnast, Daniel Torres-Rangel, also competed on this event. Daniel was studying abroad in Chile last quarter and this was his first competition of the year. However, he had a good performance and scored an 8.875, a great score for making a season debut at NCAAs.
In terms of all around, Dan Gill finished 2nd with a 54.850. This score was 1.100 points behind the leader, Randy Monahan from Ohio State. Dan will be competing in the all around again tomorrow, and the final NCAA results will be determined then.
For a brief recap of who to look out for tomorrow: Dan Gill - All around Sean Doolan - Floor exercise and parallel bars Peter Derman and Alex Schorsch - Still rings Nate Downs - Parallel bars and horizontal bar
Penn State, Michigan, and Oklahoma will compete against Cal, Ohio State, and Illinois and these Stanford gymnasts for individual all around titles and spots in event finals on Sunday.