Author: Jenny Peter

The No. 3 Stanford men’s gymnastics team will have a chance to challenge its depth this weekend at the Stanford Open. Many gymnasts will make their debuts on Saturday against Cal at Burnham Pavilion. Juniors Alex Buscaglia, Josh Dixon, Tim Gentry and Ryan Lieberman will have a weekend to rest for the Winter Cup m

(Stanford Daily File Photo)

eet next Thursday in Las Vegas. Competing in their place for the team and also as individuals will be their underclassman teammates and others fighting for spots in the lineup.

“With such a large team full of great gymnasts, it’s hard for anyone to make the lineup,” said redshirt senior captain and Daily business staff member, Greg Ter-Zakhariants. “It’s even harder for the freshmen, since they must prove themselves to the coaches and the rest of the team.”

In men’s gymnastics, only six men are allowed to compete in each event and the four highest scores count toward the team score. The men will have their opportunity to prove themselves on Saturday and contribute to the team score. The freshmen and sophomores will also gain some much-needed competition experience.

“Coming into NCAA gymnastics as a freshman is always a big change from the junior level and it takes some time to adjust,” said redshirt sophomore captain Abhinav Ramani. “The freshmen have been working hard and with more meets under their belt, they’re going to be prime for greatness as we near conference and NCAA Championships.”

Ramani, too, will be competing this weekend after recovering from hand surgery.

“Also, since none of the sophomores competed last year, every intrasquad and competition serves to show the freshmen that everyone on the team is fighting for a spot,” Ter-Zakhariants said.

The members of the sophomore class — John Martin, Gabriel Alvarado, Cameron Foreman and Jordan Nolff — all redshirted last year and are ready to make their mark. They attribute much of their improvements to hard work and great upperclassmen to look up to.

“We have a big junior/senior class that has a great deal of competing experience,” Ramani said. “We have dealt with a national title loss and a win so we know what it takes to be the best. We’ve been teaching and showing the younger guys what it is going to take to win another national title and they’ve been really good about trusting us and following along with the coaches’ plan.”

The team’s goal this week is to do what they have being practicing in the gym.

“As each week goes by we work on refining our execution and improving out hit ratio,” Ramani said. “In a few more meets we’ll start to figure out our pace and we’ll be able to perform even better.”

The meet will run from Friday night until Saturday night with competitions between members in the junior levels and will conclude with the collegiate competition between Stanford and California. The Cardinal men will compete against Cal Saturday at 7 p.m.

No. 1 Stanford hosted the Big Flip Off men’s gymnastics meet on Saturday night and boosted their record to 2-0 with a win over California at Burnham Pavilion. This was Stanford’s second win of the season over its archrivals, which scored lower than the Cardinal on every event except the pommel horse to end nearly nine points behind Stanford (349.65 – 340.85).

Vivian Wong/The Stanford Daily

The team’s first home meet certainly gave them an experience to remember.

“To have Burnham filled up with our friends, classmates, and family really helped us put on a good show,” said redshirt sophomore and captain Abhinav Ramani.

Redshirt senior and co-captain Greg Ter-Zakhariants, who is also a Daily business staffer, agreed.

“The crowd at our first home meet was the largest I’ve seen it,” he said.

The Cardinal began the meet on the floor with solid routines from freshmen Eddie Penev and junior Alex Buscaglia. Both scored a 15.15 to tie for first. Junior Josh Dixon also put up a high score of 15.05 to help Stanford get an early lead over Cal.

The Stanford men did not do as well as they had hoped on pommel horse, which was likely due to a fairly new lineup of inexperienced competitors.

“I think the excitement and nerves got the better of some of the guys,” Ramani said. “We’re going to be working hard on fixing this and proving to the nation that we have the best pommel horse line-up.”

Stanford gained their pride back on the rings with standout routines from junior Ryan Lieberman and freshmen James Fosco. According to the captains, Fosco promises to earn even higher scores in the future as he gains more experience. One of the highlights of the night came from junior Tim Gentry’s ring routine, which procured a 15.7 and aided a three-point lead on the event for the Cardinal.

“He’s definitely going to be challenging for a national title on that event,” Ramani said of Gentry.

Vault was another high-scoring event, in which the team put up a 15.8 by Buscaglia, a 15.45 by Penev, a 15.2 by senior Eric Hergenrader and a 15.2 by Dixon.

Stanford stepped it up further on the parallel bars, beginning with a great set from redshirt freshmen Cameron Foreman. Foreman led the team with a 14.9, followed by a solid routine from Lieberman for a 14.7.

On the last event, Foreman improved his high bar routine from last meet and posted a 13.85. Gentry also faired well with a 13.6. Buscaglia’s routine ended the night on a high note for the Cardinal, as he performed some of the most difficult skill connections in the world to score a 15.25. He, too, will challenge for a national title come April.

“Every guy did his job to make sure we beat Cal and we posted good enough scores to overtake them,” Ramani said of the win. “I hope more people around campus realize how much fun gymnastics meets are and will show up at our home meets.”

The next chance to see the Stanford men in action will be the Stanford Open at 7 p.m. this Friday at Burnham Pavilion.

The No. 1 ranked Stanford men’s gymnastics team started its season with a crucial win over No. 2 Cal in the Haas Pavilion last Friday in Berkeley, Calif. The Cardinal beat the Golden Bears by over 11 points, with a combined team score of 352.75 to Cal’s 340.10 — a considerably large margin to win by in the gymnastics realm.

“It always feels good to dominate Cal,” said junior team captain Tim Gentry.

Stanford was down by 1.5 points after its first rotation on pommel horse, but they did come through with two big scores by juniors Eric Hergenrader and Josh Dixon with a 14.25 and 14.0, respectively. Although Cal is known for their great pommel horse and parallel bars, Stanford was able to make up the points on the other events.

On floor, freshmen Eddie Penev made his debut and produced the highest score on the event with a 15.6. Penev began his routine with an explosive double layout with two twists. Since the four highest scores from each event contribute to the team score, the junior class made its hit routines count — Gentry scored a 15.25, Josh Dixon had a 15.05 and Alex Buscaglia had a 15.0.

The team carried its momentum to vault and scored their highest event score of the night. Dixon stuck his double twisting vault and procured a 15.85 to heat things up. The rest of the line-up followed suit with high scores from Penev (15.75), Buscaglia (16.0) and Gentry (16.1), who came agonizingly close to sticking his handspring double front.

Rings was another highlight of the night with several stuck landings and clean lines from redshirt freshmen starter Jordan Nolff, junior Ryan Lieberman and senior Nick Noone. The Cardinal has a clear advantage over any team on this event, beating Cal by over 4 points on the rings. Gentry dominated with a 15.65 and scored a full point more than Noone (14.65) who placed second. Freshmen anchor James Fosco also had an impressive routine despite coming off a foot injury and having to skip the dismount.

The Cardinal lost a bit of momentum on the high bar and parallel bars and had a few falls, though Buscaglia and Lieberman were able to clutch first and second place on high bar with a 14.85 and 14.7. Although Stanford’s high bar wasn’t its best, Cal did not fare better. The Golden Bears were forced to count two 12’s toward their team score. However, it was all Cal on parallel bars. The Bears took down Stanford by almost two points with the help of Kyle Bunthuwong’s 15.5. There were a few standout routines by Lieberman (14.35) and Dixon (14.6).

“Fortunately, by the last event, we had built up quite a lead and it wasn’t even close.” commented Gentry.

“We just need to start focusing on detail areas and polishing our routines. Everyone had some mistakes and we will be hoping to fix those as we prepare for this meet,” said Gentry. “We will be looking for a repeat domination win this weekend at home on Saturday.”

The meet will be held in Burnham Pavilion at 7 p.m.