Stanford men’s gymnastics finished second in the NCAA Championships on Friday on the strength of several brilliant individual performances.

The Cardinal started the weekend strong, placing first in their semifinal on Thursday with a score of 435.85. The top three teams in each semifinal made it to the team finals on Friday, where the Cardinal were looking to win their sixth national championship. While they weren’t able to win the title, multiple Stanford gymnasts took home major accolades.

Sophomore Akash Modi won the all-around title with a season-best 90.450, becoming the first Stanford gymnast to win the individual title since 1986. Modi was the top scorer in the parallel bars with a 15.75, scoring high marks on an extremely difficult routine.

“It’s a big confidence-building event for me. I can just go out there, do the routine like I’ve practiced, and nail the routine,” Modi said when asked about his signature event.

He followed up his outstanding parallel bars score with top-three finishes on floor (15.60) and high bar (15.05). After finishing second in the all-around last year, Modi credited his success to his consistency.

“This year, I’ve really worked on my weaknesses,” he said. “Going into this meet, I knew I had done everything I could and I just had to let it show.”

The rest of the Cardinal gymnasts followed Modi’s lead on the parallel bars, with senior Brian Knott (15.50) and freshman Robert Neff (14.90) contributing to a meet-best 75.75 in the event. Although the Cardinal also finished second on vault and high bar, it was their consistency across all the disciplines that allowed them to capture their ninth top-three finish in the last 10 years. The Cardinal placed no lower than fourth in any discipline, allowing them to compile 440.45 points, second only to host Oklahoma’s 447.05.

“Having the guy before me hit a great routine, setting the next guy up to do well, that’s what my routines were all about,” Modi noted about the team’s top-to-bottom consistency.

 

Stanford’s consistent performance in the team competition earned it several spots in the individual event championships on Saturday. Knott and fellow senior Sean Senters joined Modi as individual champions, winning the parallel bars and vault, respectively. After posting a career-best 15.50 in the team competition, Knott’s 15.20 was enough to take the title over second-place Modi, who finished with 15.10.

Senters ended a historically good season on vault with his first NCAA title, running away from the competition with a 15.475. The distance between Senters and runner-up Kevin Wolting of Cal was as big as the distance between Wolting and the seventh-place finisher. Over the course of the season, Senters took first place on vault in every meet he competed in, except for the MPSF Championships.

Apart from the championship performances of Knott and Senters, the Cardinal took home several other individual honors. Neff and sophomore Tyler Seaton received their first All-American distinctions with top-eight finishes on high bar and vault, respectively. Neff took seventh place with a 14.625 in a high bar event that saw only four gymnasts clear 15 points. Seaton’s 15.000 on vault was good for fourth place, cementing a strong performance for the Cardinal in that event.

Knott added to his trophy case with an eighth place finish on pommel horse. Modi ended a tremendous weekend with All-American results on floor, pommel horse, parallel bars and high bar.

Contact Sanjay Srinivas at ssri16 ‘at’ stanford.edu.