Jan. 23, 2010
Stanford, Calif. - Stanford men's gymnastics improved to 2-0 with a victory over California at the Big Flip Off on Saturday night at Burnham Pavilion. The Cardinal scored 349.65 points to easily outdistance Cal with 340.85.
Stanford took an early lead scoring 60.25 points in the floor exercise, its first rotation. Alex Buscaglia and Eddie Penev paced the Cardinal on the floor, each totaling scores of 15.15. Josh Dixon also came through with a score of 15.050.
The Cardinal did not fair as well on pommel horse, where Cal had the higher team score. However, Stanford still held a nice early lead due to the strength of the floor exercise. Eric Hergenrader led the Cardinal on the pommel horse with a score of 13.75.
Next up were the rings and vault, two events where Stanford is particularly strong. Tim Gentry led Stanford on rings after nailing a routine, scoring 15.7. James Fosco and Ryan Lieberman also posted strong routines as Stanford gained three full points on Cal on rings.
Vault proved to be the highest scoring event for Stanford with a team score of 61.7. Buscaglia led the Cardinal with a score of 15.8, while Penev, Hergenrader and Dixon all scored over 15.
The Cardinal finished up with parallel bars and the horizontal bar. Cameron Foreman led Stanford with a 14.9 on parallel bars, a career-best performance. Buscaglia came through again on high bar with a score of 15.25, also a career best.
Buscaglia also earned a career-best score of 84.5 in the all-around, which led Stanford. Bryan Del Castillo of Cal had the top overall score of 86.9.
The Cardinal will be back in action next weekend at the Stanford Open. The collegiate portion of the meet will be Saturday, January 30, at 7:00 pm. The Cardinal will once again face Cal in a battle of Bay Area rivals.