No. 1 Stanford men’s gymnastics stumbled into the postseason with a third-place finish at Saturday’s conference championships at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla. No. 2 Oklahoma captured the 2010 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation title at home with a combined team score of 354.550, in an all-around low-scoring meet.
No. 8 California came in second with a team score of 354.450. Stanford earned a score of 347.150. Trailing behind were Nebraska (341.650) and Air Force (329.500).
The conference loss was both disappointing and confusing for the reigning NCAA champions, the Stanford men, who went undefeated in collegiate competition in the regular season this year.
“We don’t really know what happened,” said redshirt senior and co-captain Greg Ter-Zakhariants. “We’ve been hitting routines in practice, but we either got too comfortable or too freaked out.”
“It was rough. We never really got into a rhythm,” said sophomore Jordan Nolff. “I think we were too focused on beating Oklahoma and posting a huge score in their home arena instead of on the gymnastics we needed to do.”
Ter-Zakhariants and Nolff may have both been right. Stanford faltered through Saturday’s competition and failed to find any rhythm.
The team’s first event, parallel bars, started promisingly with senior Lucas Hughes scoring a solid 14.35, but then came two scores in the 13.0 range from sophomore John Martin and junior Josh Dixon. And, to end the event, there was an uncharacteristically low score of 13.25 from Stanford’s parallel bars and still rings standout, redshirt junior and two-time All-American Nick Noone.
On pommel horse, Stanford hardly fared any better.
“We got too jittery,” Ter-Zakhariants said.
Though Ter-Zakhariants delivered a fairly solid set, he missed one element that brought his routine’s start value down two whole points, earning a 13.2. The Cardinal continued its downward slide. Several falls and missed elements later, Ter-Zakhariants’ score was the best of the pommel horse bunch.
Later in the meet, whatever demons haunted Stanford at the beginning of the evening came back on high bar. Though Martin pulled himself together after his poor parallel bars showing to start Stanford off with a 14.7, his teammates could not embrace his momentum. Junior and co-captain Tim Gentry followed Martin with a 13.9, junior Alex Buscaglia landed with a 13.6 and freshman Eddie Penev flopped with a 13.25.
Despite the rough opening, Stanford managed to find success on still rings, floor and vault.
“I think we needed to not pay attention to the falls and just keep our heads in the game,” said freshman James Fosco, Stanford’s still rings star, who persevered through a suspected torn bicep halfway through his routine to score a 15.1
Additionally, Penev, known mostly for his tumbling and twisting on floor and vault, provided a solid start for the Cardinal with a score of 14.0. Gentry took the event title with a 15.45.
Things continued to look up for Stanford on floor. Dixon and Buscaglia posted scores of 15.25 and 15.15, while Penev stole the show with a 15.75.
On vault, senior Eric Hergenrader blasted off with a 15.8. Gentry, Penev and Buscaglia all recuperated from their high bar lows with scores of 16.1, 15.4 and 15.25, respectively.
But by then, it was too late. Both Oklahoma and Cal had solid nights and were neck-and-neck for the conference title until the very last rotation, when Oklahoma’s men put together six solid pommel horse routines to clinch their 10th MPSF conference title in 12 years.
In the next two weeks, Stanford must pull itself together or face a repeat of its 2008 postseason instead of its 2009 postseason. In 2008, Stanford was No. 1 going into the postseason, but lost to Oklahoma at both the MPSF and NCAA Championships.
Some men, like Fosco, are using Saturday’s experience as a lesson.
“I’m glad this happened before NCAAs,” he said. “I’m glad we had this experience and can go back into the gym and get ourselves ready.”
NCAA Championships are April 15-17 at the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.