April 15, 2010
West Point, N.Y. - The Stanford men's gymnastics team took the first step as it attempts to repeat as NCAA Champions on Thursday, dominating the first session of the preliminary round. The Cardinal scored 359.00 points to easily outdistance top qualifier Illinois for the top score and automatic qualification to the NCAA Finals on Friday.
Illinois scored 354.05 and Ohio State scored 346.80 to earn the other two spots in the NCAA Finals. The second half of the prelims will take place later today when No. 2 Oklahoma leads a group that includes Michigan and California as the teams also expected to advance.
Stanford won four of the six events and also earned four individual event titles. The Cardinal captured the floor exercise, the vault, the parallel bars and the horizontal bar. Stanford also had the individual champion on each of those apparatuses.
The Cardinal had the highest score of the day on the vault, totaling 64.35. Josh Dixon took the event title with a 16.25, which was just off his best effort of the season. Alex Buscaglia also excelled in the event with a score of 16.20.
Buscaglia had a big day for Stanford, taking the top score of the horizontal bar. His score of 15.55 led the Cardinal to a total of 58.85 in the event, which was tops on the day. Cameron Foreman also came through on the high bar with a score of 14.70.
The other event wins for Stanford came in the floor exercise and the parallel bars. Eddie Penev continued his dominance on the floor, scoring 15.90 to win the event. The Cardinal scored 61.25 as a team on the floor and also got scores over 15 from Buscaglia and Dixon. On the parallel bars, Ryan Lieberman led the way with a score of 15.50. Former All-American in the event, Nicholas Noone, also fared well scoring 15.10 as Stanford scored 59.30 for the event win.
Stanford placed second on both the rings and the pommel horse by narrow margins. Brandon Wynn of Ohio State scored a 15.70 on rings to lead the Buckeyes to the event title, while Daniel Ribeiro of Illinois scored the same score on the pommel horse to lead the Fighting Illini to that event title.
Tim Gentry scored 15.15 to finish as the runner-up on rings, while Lucas Hughes led Stanford on the pommel horse with a score of 14.45.
The Cardinal will be back in action tomorrow for the NCAA Finals. The top six teams in the nation will compete for the NCAA team championship as Stanford looks for its second straight title. In addition, the NCAA individual all-around champion will be crowned during the same competition. The action begins at 4:00 p.m., PST and updated results can be found HERE courtesy of host Army.