April 2, 2011
Colorado Springs, Colo. - Each of the four times that Stanford has won the NCAA title, the Cardinal have preceded it with a conference title. The second-ranked Cardinal hope that 2011 will be no different as it won the MPSF Championship, knocking off No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 3 California in the process.
Stanford scored 362.250 to win the title, while second-place Oklahoma had 360.700 and Cal had 356.050 to place third. Nebraska (346.500) and Air Force (344.800) rounded out the rest of the conference.
Stanford last won the MPSF title in 2009, the same year as the only NCAA title during head coach Thom Glielmi's tenure. The three previous conference titles also happened to be the years that Stanford won its other three NCAA titles (1992, 1993, 1995).
The Cardinal got a complete effort on Saturday, led by the senior group of Alex Buscaglia, Josh Dixon, Tim Gentry and Ryan Lieberman. Lieberman placed third in the all-around with a score of 88.400, but it was the depth of the team that enabled Stanford to score well in every event.
The Cardinal was particularly strong on the floor, still rings and the horizontal bar where it easily had the top scores. Dixon led Stanford on the floor with a score of 15.700, while Eddie Penev scored 15.350. The duo was third and fourth overall in the event as Penev returning from injury made an immediate impact on the Cardinal team. Gentry scored 15.100, while Lieberman was at 14.850 to round out the Stanford scoring in the event.
On the rings, Gentry continued to show why he is likely the favorite at the NCAA meet with an outstanding score of 16.050. His score was almost a half point higher than the rest of the field, but his closest competitors were teammates James Fosco and Jordan Nolff. Fosco scored 15.600 and Nolff scored 15.350, while Nicholas Noone was eighth overall in the event and scored 15.100.
Buscaglia led Stanford on the horizontal bar as he continues to be the top competitor in the nation in the event. His score of 15.600 was a half a point better than his teammate Cameron Foreman who placed second with a score of 15.100. Paul Hichwa and Gentry tied for fifth with scores of 14.700 to round out Stanford's scoring.
The Cardinal also fared well on the vault and the pommel horse where it had the second-highest score of any team. Buscaglia led Stanford on the vault with a score of 16.300, while Dixon scored 16.000. Abhinav Ramani (15.950) and Gentry (15.950) rounded out Stanford's scoring in the event.
In the pommel horse, Jason Stevens came through with a solid routine to place fifth overall with a score of 14.350. Chris Turner (14.250), Ramani (13.950) and Lieberman (13.950) rounded out the scoring for Stanford.
Finally, in the parallel bars, the Cardinal were led by Noone, who scored 15.150. Dixon scored 14.750, Lieberman scored 14.650 and Gentry scored 13.800 to compete Stanford's scoring.
The MPSF title should give Stanford some solid momentum as it heads into the NCAA meet in two weeks. Oklahoma had been the only top team that Stanford had not defeated yet this season, but that is no longer the case. The NCAA Championships will be April 14-16 in Columbus, Ohio.