Feb. 7, 2009
LAS VEGAS - Sho Nakamori earned a third-place finish in all-around, and the rest of his teammates all finished in the top-25 as the Stanford men's gymnasts wrapped up competition tonight in the prestigious Winter Cup Challenge.
Nakamori improved on his all-around score from Thursday's preliminary round (87.4) by 1.3 points to finish with a two-day total of 176.1, and improved his scores on five apparatuses on the second day of competition, including a 15.05 on parallel bars.
Greg Ter-Zakhariants had the second-best performance for the Cardinal with a two-day all-around total of 169.1 Ter-Zakhariants was solid in four events in the finals and scored a 14.8 on floor.
Ryan Lieberman, Bryant Hadden, and Josh Dixon took 16th, 17th, and 18th in all-around respectively. Lieberman hit a 15.1 on vault, Hadden a 15.2 on still rings, and Dixon a 15.3 on vault, each their highest scoring event of the night.
Alex Buscaglia took 20th, and Tim Gentry 25th overall. Buscaglia was consistently good on vault in both the prelims (15.9) and finals (15.8), as was Gentry. Gentry also improved his floor exercise performance in the finals, earning 1.65 points more on his routine for a score of 14.6.
Volunteer assistant coach David Sender also competed and took 11th in all-around. Sender nailed his vault in both the prelims and finals with a 16.1.
Seven gymnasts will be named to the U.S. Men's Senior National Team based on the national team points ranking system from the Winter Cup Challenge, and one each will be selected by the Men's Program Committee and men's national team coordinator. The six members of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team for men's gymnastics can petition for spots, and the Men's Program Committee will name additional members to the senior national team if any Olympic positions are unused. The 15 gymnasts named to the team will comprise the U.S. Men's Senior National Team until the 2009 Visa Championships in August. The team should be named in the next few weeks.
For complete results from the Winter Cup Challenge, please visit USA Gymnastics' Winter Cup Challenge page.
Stanford will next compete on Sat. Feb 14 at 7 p.m. at the Gold Country Invitational in San Francisco.