STANFORD, Calif. – Despite holding onto the lead through the first four events, No. 2 Stanford was unable to hold on as No. 1 Oklahoma claimed their fifth straight MPSF title Saturday afternoon at Burnham Pavilion.
The Cardinal (15-2, 7-2 MPSF) started the meet off on vault where Robert Neff and Grant Breckenridge both posted scores just shy of their career bests. Taylor Seaton led the Cardinal with a 15.200 score as Stanford posted a 74.350 to lead the field by .150 after the first event.
The Cardinal stepped up to the parallel bars next where it was led by Akash Modi with a 15.450 followed up with Dennis Zaremski’s 15.400 and Brian Knott’s 15.000. As a team, Stanford posted a 75.450 for its second-best score of the season to lead the meet by 2.700 after two events.
Heading to the high bar next the Cardinal hit its stride as it collected its first team win of the day with a 74.000 team score, its third highest score of the year. Grant Breckenridge led off the event for the Cardinal, only to post the best score of the day in the event as well as career-best score of 15.250. Taylor Seaton also stepped up to post a career-best 15.150 while taking second in the event on the day. After three events Stanford held a 2.800 lead on the rest of the field.
Headed to floor next, Akash Modi led the day with a 15.650 score that helped propel the Cardinal, though Oklahoma claimed the team event with the second and third best scores on the day. Jacob Barrus’ career-best 15.050 helped send the Cardinal to a 1.000 lead after four results.
The turning point on the day came when Oklahoma set an NCAA team record of 77.000 on parallel bars in the next event, topping the former record of 76.900 held by Stanford on February 6, 2016. The Cardinal posted a 71.700 on pommel horse in the rotation, but the damage was done as the Sooners took a 4.300 lead headed into the final event.
The Cardinal moved to the rings in the final event of the meet where Dennis Zaremski posted a 15.550 to win the event on the day while Akash Modi put up a season-best 14.800. The effort wasn’t enough though as the Sooners finished the meet with a 448.050 team score to Stanford’s 444.650 and clinch their fifth straight MPSF title.
In the all-around Akash Modi took second place in the meet with a 89.800 overall score. The meet is the first NCAA meet of the year that Modi has not taken home the all-around title in.
The Cardinal will have a week off before traveling to Columbus, Ohio, for the NCAA Championships on April 15-16.