Senior all-around gymnast David Sender of the Stanford men's gymnastics team was selected as the Stanford/Muscle Milk Student Athlete of the Week for the week of April 14-20.
Apr. 21, 2008
Senior David Sender of the Stanford men's gymnastics team was selected as the Stanford/Muscle Milk Student Athlete of the Week for the week of April 14-20.
Sender captured his eighth and ninth All-American awards on Saturday, April 19 at the Individual Event Finals at the 2008 National Collegiate Men's Gymnastics Championships to cap off his four-year career. With his two recent awards, he became the first Stanford gymnast in history to become a nine-time All American. He also provided solid scores that contributed to Stanford placing second in the NCAA Team Finals on Friday, and the qualifying rounds on Thursday, in which the Cardinal recorded the highest score in NCAA competition this year.
In order to become an All-American, a gymnast must place in the top-eight on any individual apparatus. Sender took home second place honors on the vault and the rings. Even though he scored a tremendous 16.35 on the vault, he just missed out on winning the event for a third straight year, being narrowly edged for the title by .05 points. On rings, he scored an outstanding 15.775.
In the team qualifying round on Thursday, Sender was instrumental in helping the team achieve a score of 363.85, the NCAA's highest recorded score of the year. He sprung for a 16.2 in the vault, notched scores in the high 15's for floor and rings, and had two high 14's scores in p-bars and high bar.
In Friday night's team and all-around finals, Sender again helped lead the way for the Cardinal, taking fourth in all-around with 89.1, and scoring well again with a 16.25 in vault, 15's in floor and rings, and 14's on each of the bars.
Sender's selection is the third Stanford/Muscle Milk Student-Athlete of the Week honor of his career.
Also nominated: Missy Penna (softball), Hilary Barte (tennis), Hari Mix (track & field), Claire Hubbard (lacrosse), Matt Ceran (volleyball), Sihwan Kim (golf)