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The Cardinal came off their short break with one mission: take down No. 1 ranked Oklahoma.
Stanford entered the MPSF Conference Championships seeded No. 2 collegiately, and in reality, had no legitimate competition behind them in the lot of Cal Berkley and Air Force. This was a battle of the best, and the more consistent team prevailed.
Despite leading through the first four events, it was not enough for Stanford to take the victory over Oklahoma, who claimed its fifth straight conference title.
The Cardinal started off the evening on vault with sophomore Robert Neff and Freshman Grant Breckenridge finishing hairs away from career bests at 14.500 and 14.850 respectively. Junior Taylor Seaton led the team with his 15.200 to a 74.350 combined score and a .150 lead over the rest of the field.
Junior Akash Modi carried the team with a 15.450 on parallel bars, followed by Senior Dennis Zaremski's 15.400 and fifth year senior Brian Knott's 15.000. This overall dominant performance on all cylinders gave Stanford a total 74.450 on the event, good enough for their second-best event score of the season and a 2.700 meet lead.
Breckenridge took gold on high bar with his career-best 15.250, as Seaton's career-best 15.150 placed him right behind. The team combined for a 74.000 on the event, and grew their lead by a tenth.
Modi led the way on floor with a 15.650, along with Sophomore Jacob Barrus' career-best 15.050, but Oklahoma took the event and minimized the final Cardinal lead to just 1.000.
The Sooners took charge after that, setting the NCAA team record with a gasping 77.000 on parallel bars in their fifth rotation, topping the Cardinal record of 76.900 set less than two months prior. Stanford competed an uneventful pommel horse at the time, allowing Oklahoma to run away with the lead and extend it to 4.300.
Stanford finished on rings, where Zaremski took the bitter sweet victory with a 15.550 as Modi posted a season-best of 14.800.
As the team captured the second spot, so did Modi in the all-around, for the first time this season. Accustomed to standing atop the podium with his personal-best of 91.350, Modi's unusually low 89.800 trailed Oklahoma's Allan Bower by three tenths of a point.
But, to end on a more positive note, the Cardinal's team score of 444.650 would have been enough to easily rob the Big 10 crown from Ohio State and their 434.450 this past weekend.
Just one more meet remains on Stanford's schedule: the NCAA Championships at Ohio State University on April 15-16.
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