Author: Jessica Yu

The third time was the charm for Stanford men’s gymnastics. After two straight season-opening losses to the California Golden Bears in 2008 and 2009, No. 1 Stanford finally broke through last Friday night at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley. This Saturday, No. 2 Cal looks to return the favor when it comes to The Farm.

While several Stanford men posted tremendous scores that contributed to the team’s 352.75-340.10 win over Cal, head coach Thom Glielmi remained humble about Friday’s victory. When asked where he saw room for improvement after Friday’s meet, Glielmi simply answered, “Everywhere.”

The Stanford men’s gymnastics team takes on a familiar face when it hosts No. 2 Cal Saturday. The Cardinal defeated the Golden Bears 352.75-340.10 last week in Berkeley and looks to continue its success at home. (Stanford Daily File Photo)

After all, Cal suddenly found itself at a disadvantage last Friday when sophomore Glen Ishino, one of Cal’s top all-around competitors, injured himself during warm-ups. As a result, Cal sent just five men to each event and therefore had to count all five scores in its team total. The slightest misstep on any one routine affected Cal’s score. Meanwhile, Stanford sent six men to each event and therefore had the opportunity to selectively count its top five scores. According to Stanford redshirt senior and captain Greg Ter-Zakhariants, who is also a member of The Daily’s business staff, Cal could have added 10 points to its final score had Ishino been able to compete.

Stanford did have some impressive moments. While junior Tim Gentry’s rings routine and junior Ryan Lieberman’s high bar routine posted big scores, sophomore Cameron Foreman’s parallel bars routine added a bit of humor to the long night.

After missing his grip on a release move, Foreman ended up with his pants leg caught on the edge of the bar. Fans, friends, rivals and teammates could not help but join together in laughter as Foreman hung helplessly from the apparatus. After 10 long seconds of tugging, Foreman finally jumped down, ran for a new pair of pants and got back on the bars to finish his routine.

As Stanford prepares for its upcoming meets, Glielmi and his men are adding difficulty to their routines and perfecting their execution.

Stanford’s goal, according to Ter-Zakhariants, is to treat each gym session like a competition and to have each competition mirror a gym session.

“We don’t want anything exceptionally different on the competition floor,” he said.

While he acknowledges that there will be fluctuations in each person’s performance, Ter-Zakhariants wants each of his teammates to go out knowing exactly what to do and expect.

This is especially important for the freshmen. Three of Stanford’s five freshmen started their collegiate gymnastics careers last Friday, with freshman Eddie Penev posting particularly high scores.

With that first competition out of the way, Stanford’s newcomers and veterans are focusing on the road ahead. As they make their way toward April’s NCAA Championship, they will be using each competition as a lesson on what needs attention and improvement.

Each face-off with Cal will be especially important in the weeks to come. According to Ter-Zakhariants, having such a top-ranked team so close to home helps Stanford gauge its progress toward the NCAA Championship. Not only is Cal known for its clean, high-level gymnastics, it boasts three strong all-around contenders — senior Brian del Castillo, junior Kyle Bunthuwong and Ishino.

The stronger Stanford becomes against its rivals, the more prepared it will be for another national championship.
Saturday’s meet will be held at 7 p.m. in Burnham Pavilion.

The Stanford men’s gymnastics team begins its quest to repeat as the national champion when it takes on Cal. Besides being a rivalry meet, Saturday’s contest also features the top two teams in the nation. (Stanford Daily File Photo)

For the past five years, Cal has hosted the Stanford Cardinal in its gymnastics season opener and if past precedence foreshadows what is to come, Stanford needs a huge performance. In both 2008 and 2009, Stanford came in ranked No. 1 in the nation, yet both years the Cardinal was upset by its rival from across the Bay.

That said, things are looking up for the Cardinal this time around. Coming off a phenomenal 2009 season that ended with an NCAA Team Championship title, Stanford begins its 2010 season with one of the strongest groups of men in recent team history despite graduating three of its top athletes, according to head coach Thom Glielmi.

“We are a different team than last year, [but] we definitely have greater scoring potential,” he said.

Senior Tim Gentry, team co-captain and current U.S. senior national team member, added, “Most of our line-up still consists of experienced underclassmen, so I don’t foresee any major problems.”

In fact, Gentry is confident that Stanford can finally beat Cal in this competition, the first of three one-on-one challenges between the Cardinal and Golden Bears this year. According to Gentry, it all comes down to each team’s start values. Stanford’s start values, he urges, give them an advantage over Berkeley — and those start values may just be what this particular meet comes down to.

Gymnastics is a complex sport in which perfect scores are literally limitless. The highest score any gymnast can receive depends on his routine’s start value. If, for example, Glielmi (himself a former gymnast) has a floor exercise routine with a start value of 16.0 and executes each flip and twist perfectly, he will score a 16.0. That’s a perfect score for him, but not necessarily for the entire world of gymnastics. The more wow-factor stunts gymnasts pile into their routines, the higher their start values go. To today’s gymnasts, impressive start values run in the 15.0 to 16.0 range.

Last Friday, the Stanford men revealed some of their start values in an intrasquad meet — an effort to introduce Stanford’s newcomers to the collegiate arena and to reinvigorate Stanford’s veterans — and demonstrated just how much scoring potential they really have.

Two events that captured Stanford’s impressive scoring potential were floor exercise and vault. During last week’s intrasquad meet, Gentry, an All-American on the event, nailed his handspring double pike, earning a high 15.1 and continued on to catapult through a double front vault for another high score. While few other team members showcased their talents on these events due to injury, rumor has it that fans can enjoy intricately exciting sets from juniors Alex Buscaglia (another U.S. senior national team member) and Josh Dixon and freshman Eddie Penev.

And on still rings, another key event for Stanford, junior Ryan Lieberman stuck his full twisting double layout dismount during Friday’s competition, while freshman James Fosco showed off his incredible strength despite a broken toe that prevented him from revealing a stunning aerial conclusion.

The Golden Bears, on the other hand, may outperform Stanford on parallel bars and pommel horse, their two strongest events.

Returning with the Golden Bears in their team’s first competitive meet of the season are sophomores Glen Ishino and Jim Kerry, 2009 All-Americans on parallel bars. Ishino is also a 2009 All-American on pommel horse and the 2009 season opener’s pommel horse champion.

But for Stanford, the focus is less on winning this particular competition and more on improving throughout the season. Freshman Paul Hichwa is simply excited to see how his new team stacks up against another stellar team.

“I know Cal has a lot of talent,” the high bar specialist said, “so it should be a great way to start off our season.”

And according to Glielmi, Stanford’s ultimate line-up has yet to be determined and will largely depend on how much the team improves in difficulty and performance in each meet in January.

Friday’s meet will take place at 7:30 p.m. at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley.

The evening of April 17, 2009 was one heck of a night. The fans at the University of Minnesota Sports Pavilion in Minneapolis, Minn. were sitting on the edge of their seats, wondering if top-seeded Stanford would finally edge bitter rival University of Oklahoma for the 2009 NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Championship title.

It was a night similar to that of April 18, 2008, when Oklahoma pushed past Stanford by less than half a point to capture the 2008 Championship. That championship, hosted by Stanford in front of its home crowd at Maples Pavilion, was supposed to belong to Stanford. That championship, like the 2009 championship, came down to the very last man on his very last routine of the night.

That championship did something to Stanford. After what can only be described as a devastating, mind-numbing, tear-out-your-heart loss, the men of the Stanford men’s gymnastics team did the only thing they could do. They went back to the gym. They went back to the floor that haunted them and the horse that taunted them. They went back to their tangled rings and their slippery bars and promised themselves that a new day would come.

And when that day came — when the very last man on his very last routine of the night on April 17, 2009 stuck his dismount — it was Stanford that came out on top.

“It was unbelievably energizing,” said redshirt junior Nick Noone. “I sat down after my last routine and saw all of my teammates channeling every ounce of positive energy they had into the guys still to go. Suddenly, what’s usually seen as an individual sport had turned into a team sport.”

And on April 16, 2010, Stanford is poised to do it again. With five new recruits and a dozen former national champions on the team, Stanford has the talent, the experience, the freshness and the depth to capture yet another national title.

On one hand, there is Ben Rudolph, the wide-eyed freshman recruit from Chicago. The son of a former men’s collegiate gymnastics star, Rudolph spent his junior and senior years of high school anticipating his turn with Stanford men’s gymnastics. After flying from his windy hometown to sunny Palo Alto for the 2008 NCAA Championship and purchasing a ticket to Minneapolis for the 2009 Championship, Rudolph’s dream finally came true. But so far, his time at Stanford hasn’t been easy. He confesses that it has been a tough adjustment: the training is harder, the competitors are stronger and the expectations are out of this world. None of that, though, deters Rudolph from his ultimate goal. “I’m just so ready to compete,” he said.

On the other hand, there is Abhinav Ramani, current junior and co-captain. Once a boy who was so self-reportedly miserable at baseball that his mother all but forced him into gymnastics at a friend’s suggestion, Ramani is a gymnastics natural who has unfortunately spent more time in rehabilitation than in competition at Stanford. After breaking his wrist early in his collegiate career, Ramani has been frustratingly sidelined by three similar injuries that have kept him in therapy and forced him to relearn the tricks that give his routines their competitive edge.

That’s not to say Ramani hasn’t enjoyed his time with Stanford men’s gymnastics. While not part of the line-up at last years NCAA Championship, Ramani still found himself on the floor helping chalk up equipment and keeping the team’s energy high. That motivating presence was exactly what led his fellow gymnasts to name him one of their captains. In his new role, Ramani is excited to see how the new team faces the season’s upcoming challenges.

“With five new guys, we bring a less experienced team to the table,” Ramani said. “But that doesn’t make us any weaker.” With no broken wrist to mend this time around, Ramani is ready to lead his team to a consecutive championship title.