STANFORD, Calif. – Stanford continued its storied history as one of the nation's elite programs in 2017 with the Cardinal finishing fourth as a team at the NCAA Finals while collecting three individual NCAA Championships.
The Cardinal completed the season with a 22-6 overall record and leading up to the NCAA Finals fell only to one NCAA team – the top-ranked Oklahoma Sooners who pushed their NCAA Championship streak to three this season.
Throughout the year Stanford registered 15 wins over top-10 opponents, including three ranked in the top five. Three Cardinal gymnasts combined for nine All-America honors as Akash Modi claimed two NCAA Individual Championships in the All-Around and on parallel bars while Robert Neff took the NCAA Championship on high bar.
One of the most notable pieces of the 2017 season was the culmination of senior Akash Modi's career. Modi finished his tenure as the most decorated gymnast in Stanford history as well as setting NCAA records that will be an incredible feat to surpass.
In his career at Stanford, Modi was a five-time NCAA champion and twice won both the all-around (2015, 2017) and the parallel bars (2016, 2017) in addition to taking the high bar title in 2016. As a senior he tallied 19 individual event victories against NCAA teams and finished third for Team USA at the AT&T American Cup. Modi traveled to Rio as an alternate with the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team.
He also won the 2017 Nissen-Emery award, which is given to the nation's top senior collegiate gymnast and was also the first four-time MPSF Gymnast of the Year. He was a 17-time All-American and collected CGA Gymnast of the Week accolades an NCAA-record 18 times during his career.
Junior Robert Neff also posted a huge year for the Cardinal as he not only posted the NCAA's highest score in high bar (15.500), but also claimed the NCAA Individual Championship in the event.
The Cardinal graduates an incredible senior class of Jordan DeClerk, Andrew Misiolek, Modi, Taylor Seaton and Drew Willoughby, but retain a plethora of talent as well as seeing an elite recruiting class join in 2018.
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The following is a rundown of honors accumulated by the team from the 2017 season:
- Fourth-place NCAA Championships finish
- 19th consecutive NCAA Championships appearance, 34th overall
- 12th straight appearance at in the NCAA Championship Finals
- Second fourth-place finish in program history (1989)
- Three NCAA event titles: Akash Modi (AA, PB), Robert Neff (HB)
- Three Cardinal gymnasts combined for nine All-America honors
- 130 All-America honors since 2002 (Head Coach Thom Glielmi's first season)
- Conference-best 10 MPSF All-Academic awards
- Akash Modi became Stanford's fifth Nissen-Emery Award winner
- Akash Modi became the first gymnast in MPSF history to be named Gymnast of the Year all four years of his career