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Once again opening their season against Cal Berkley for some intrastate bragging rights, the No. 2 ranked Cardinal coasted out-front to a 1-0 record against the No. 8 ranked Golden Bears.
Stanford completed a full sweep of the meet by taking all individual event titles, making the near 15-point team score deficit seem even more dominant that it already was.
The team opened on pommel horse and finished the event on a strong note with 2016 US Men’s Olympic Team alternate Akash Modi posting a near perfect 15.050 routine to help the Cardinal take the event 66.900-64.200.
Floor was a completely different story; everybody got in on the action. Jordan DeClerk and Modi took 1 and 2 with a 14.760 and 14.550 respectively, only to see Cal take the next 2 spots. Jacob Barrus’s 14.200 ended up being the deciding factor in Stanford’s slim, tenth of a point event victory, 70.250-70.150.
Sophomore Barrett Wiess rung in his collegiate debut with a remarkable vault win in 14.700, followed on the podium by Grant Breckenridge (14.600) and Modi (14.550) to lead Stanford to a 1.900-point event win.
Josiah Eng led the way on rings by a longshot with his 14.400. DeClerk (13.700) and Breckenridge (13.500) rounded out the rest of the podium and helped seal Stanford’s near 4-point event win.
Robert Neff made his mark on the high bar, taking the event with a 14.600, as Stanford took each of the top 4 spots: 1. Neff, 2. Modi, 3. Breckenridge, 4. Taylor Seaton.
Finishing the meet just like he started, Akash Modi won his bread and butter event, parallel bars, with ease in 15.450. To define “ease”, the next closest finisher behind Modi was Barrus in 14.150—that is one way to send Cal packing.
The Cardinal will host No. 8 Cal Berkley again as well as No. 19 Washington at its annual Stanford Open next weekend in the Burnham Pavilion for what should be a repeat finish of this weekend.
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