April 16, 2010
West Point, N.Y. - Although coming agonizingly close, the Stanford men's gymnastics team will have to settle for the national runner-up position after being overtaken by Michigan in the final rotation. Stanford led for six rotations, but the Wolverines came through on its final apparatus, the vault, to defeat the Cardinal by 0.7 points. Michigan finished with 360.5 points, while Stanford had 359.8.
Stanford placed in the top two spots for the third consecutive year. The Cardinal was also the national runner-up in 2008 and won the NCAA title last year. Michigan captures its fourth title in school history.
Stanford opened on the vault with a big score of 64.05 to take the early lead. Eddie Penev came through huge with his best vault of the year. His score of 16.4 was the best of the competition. Josh Dixon and Tim Gentry also had big efforts scoring 16.0 apiece. Dixon and Gentry tied for sixth in the event and qualified through to the event final where the top 10 on each apparatus move on.
The Cardinal then moved on to the parallel bars, scoring 59.70, which was the best in the competition. Stanford had the top two individuals in the event with Nicholas Noone scoring 15.45 and Ryan Lieberman adding a 15.25. Both will compete in tomorrow's event finals as the top qualifiers on the parallel bars.
Stanford continued to lead after its third event, the horizontal bar. The Cardinal had the second-best score of the night notching a 58.55. Dixon led the Cardinal with a score of 14.75 to advance to his second event final. Abhinav Ramani (14.65) tied for seventh and Alex Buscaglia (14.60) placed tenth to also advance to the event final.
The fourth event for Stanford was the floor exercise and the Cardinal held its lead with a 61.15. Penev again showed that he is not a normal freshman, taking second place overall with a score of 15.85. Buscaglia also had a good score of 15.25 to squeak into the event final, tied for 10th.
Stanford then moved on to the pommel horse, an event that has plagued them some this season. Stanford was solid, scoring 57.00, but saw its lead evaporate to just 0.05 over Oklahoma and 2.95 over Michigan. John Martin led Stanford with a score of 14.75, which was sixth best of the evening.
The Cardinal finished on rings, one of its best events. However, Michigan went to vault, generally the highest scoring event for any team. Stanford scored a solid 59.35 on rings, which was good enough to stay ahead of Oklahoma, who placed third overall. However, Michigan got the score they needed on the vault as the Wolverines scored 62.70 to claim the title. Gentry led the Cardinal with a fifth-place finish on rings (15.15), while Noone was right behind him in sixth (15.00).
The Cardinal were forced to settle for second place and will have to look forward to Saturday afternoon as several athletes will chase individual national titles in the event finals. Stanford has the top qualifier in two different events with Penev in the vault and Noone on the parallel bars. The event finals begin at 1:00 p.m., PST and can be followed with live score updates HERE.
FINAL TEAM SCORES
1. Michigan - 360.500
2. Stanford - 359.800
3. Oklahoma - 357.050
4. Illinois - 354.900
5. California - 354.700
6. Ohio State - 347.350
STANFORD EVENT FINAL QUALIFIERS
Floor
Alex Buscaglia
Eddie Penev
Pommel
John Martin
Rings
Nicholas Noone
Tim Gentry
Vault
Josh Dixon
Tim Gentry
Eddie Penev
Parallel Bars
Nicholas Noone
Ryan Lieberman
Horizontal Bar
Alex Buscaglia
Abhinav Ramani
Josh Dixon