Stanford Men’s Gymnastics: Cardinal Achieves National Success

What seemed like a peak in Stanford's men's gymnastics season, was proven to be just the start last Saturday, February 6th.

Taking on No. 8 ranked California Berkley (431.550) and No. 11 ranked Michigan (430.900), No. 2 ranked Stanford obliterated them with the second highest team score in the nation this season, 447.00. This dominating performance entailed winning five of six events on the day, along with junior Akash Modi taking his third all-around crown of the year (90.350).

Starting with a bang on floor, the Cardinal won the event with a season-high 76.00 led by Modi's 15.700. Sophomores Ryan Sheppard and Jacob Barrus also pitched in with scores of 15.400 and 14.800 respectively.

Modi steered the ship onward with a 15.500 individual-title winning pommel horse routine, as 5th year senior Brian Knott posted a season-best 15.100 to help the Cardinal tie its season-high of 73.900 and win the event.

Rings came third, along with senior Dennis Zaremski taking the baton from Modi to take home his third individual-title on rings this season with a 15.200. Modi still set a season-best for himself, 14.600, as Sheppard set a career-best of 14.700 to send the Cardinal to a third straight event win (73.600).

Albeit Michigan spiting Stanford's second best vault performance on the season (74.100) by a twentieth of a point, four of six athletes either set or tied their season bests: Robert Neff (14.550), Ryan Sheppard (14.750), Akash Modi (14.900), and junior Gabe Flores (14.950).

The train returned onto its tracks with the parallel bars, where the Cardinal set a season-best of 76.900, crushing the next highest Michigan by 5.05 points. Modi cracked the sacred 16's for the first time this season to win the event (16.050), as three more broke the 15-point barrier (Dennis Zaremski, Brian Knott, Grant Breckenridge).

The Cardinal concluded their evening on a fairytale ending, having a three-way tie at 15.150 for the individual high bar gold between Breckenridge, Sheppard, and Neff, who led the team to a 73.200 victory.

Improving to 9-0 on the season with this win, the Cardinal will travel to Minneapolis to face Minnesota and Iowa next Saturday, February 13th with a double-digit win total in their sights.