NCAA Championships Report by Jerry Wright
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TEAM FINALS College Gymnastics Association Special Report 1. Stanford 363.45 STANFORD UNIVERSITY 2. Oklahoma 361.60 3. Illinois 360.15 WINS 2011 4. California 358.70 NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 5. Michigan 356.20 6. Penn State 355.70 Compiled by Jerry Wright April 17, 2011 pommel horse where it faltered enough to make the meet very interesting after four rotations. Freshman Chris Turner had the top score of the rotation with a 14.550. Jason Stevens (14.350) and Abhinav Ramani (14.050) were also solid. Moving to the still rings, Stanford started slowly, but James Foxco and Gentry came through big. Fosco scored 15.250, before Gentry came through with a huge 15.800 that was the second highest score of the day. Stanford finished on vault in what PHOTO BY surely felt like a victory lap. Lieberman JEFF MILLS and Ramani opened with solid vaults to help Stanford take over the lead, scor- STANFORD UNIVERSITY ing 15.850 and 15.950, respectively. The Cardinal then added to the After falling just short a year ago, Stanford came through with the lead as Dixon scored a 16.000 and then Buscaglia stuck a landing for clutch performance necessary to capture its second NCAA title in the top vault of the day three years. The Cardinal scored 363.45 to defeat second-place Okla- with a score of 16.350. homa (361.600) and third-place Illinois (360.15). The NCAA title Gentry added a 16.250 and was also the 100th in Stanford athletics history, as the Cardinal be- to give Stanford a score of came just the second university to accomplish that feat. 64.550, the best of the day "I am ecstatic that men's gymnastics was the team to reach the and enough for Stanford to 100th title for Stanford," said head coach Thom Glielmi, "It is an win the NCAA title com- incredible achievement for Stanford and the fact that it was men's fortably. gymnastics that won it is just icing on the cake." The finals of the all- The Cardinal began on the parallel bars for the second-straight around were also contested night, but did not fare as well this time around. Cameron Foreman as part of the team finals and Ryan Lieberman led the Cardinal in the event, both scoring with Lieberman and Dixon DIXON 15.200. The score for Foreman was a career best, which came at the placing seventh and right time, as he was sixth in the rotation with his team needing him eighth, respectively. Both will earn All-America honors for their ef- to nail the routine. Alex Buscaglia was also solid with a 15.150. fort, in what surely pales in comparison to the team title. See page 6. Stanford then shifted to the horizontal bar. Buscaglia came through with a score of 15.400. Busca- UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA glia's score was tied for the best The University of Oklahoma men's gymnastics team tallied of the night. Dixon also had a 361.600 points to finish second at the 2011 NCAA Championship at big effort in the event, scoring a St. John Arena on the campus of Ohio State. Stanford (363.450) 14.900. Lieberman scored BUSCAGLIA claimed the National Championship, and Illinois (360.150) fin- 14.750 and Tim Gentry scored ished third and Cal (358.700) was fourth. Michigan (356.200) and 14.250 to round out the rotation. Penn State (355.700) finished fifth and sixth, respectively. Next up was the floor exercise where the Cardinal had its best effort of the season. This rota- tion might have been the differ- SAM MIKULAK ence maker for the national ti- 2011 NCAA All tle. Eddie Penev came through Around Champion with a season-best score of University of 15.950 (after recovering from Michigan injury). Dixon was also out- standing in the event with a 15.850. The depth was the dif- ference though as Gentry (15.350) and Buscaglia (15.300) gave Stanford no weak link. The Cardinal then moved to “We couldn’t fight off Stanford and they are all-around (90.150) competition to earn his the final rotation, the Illini finished the night very deserving of the title,” said OU Head second straight All-America honor. (See page on pommel horse. Despite a first-place finish Coach Mark Williams. 6 for individual event finals results.) by Ribeiro (15.500), it was enough to hold the 2011 Nissen-Emery Award winner, senior advantage over the advancing Cardinal and Steven Legendre, finished fourth in the all- Sooners, as Stanford recorded a season-high around with a score of 89.700 as a total of five score of 64.550 on vault to take the top spot. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LEGENDRE: The University of California finished NISSEN-EMERY fourth at the NCAA Championships in the WINNER team championship portion. Stanford won the MIZOGUCHI championship with Oklahoma taking second and Illinois finishing fourth ahead of the Bears. The session was the final team compe- tition of the 2011 season and took place at "I couldn't have asked for anything more out Ohio State's St. John Arena on Friday even- of our athletes than what they gave me today," ing. head coach Justin Spring said. "This is exact- Bryan del Castillo tied Ohio State's Brandon OU gymnasts qualified for a combined five ly what we planned to do and they came out Wynn for fifth place in the all-around, with individual event finals scheduled for Saturday. and did even better than expected. We had our both of them scoring 89.350. Glen Ishino was Oklahoma finished first on floor (62.900). sights set a little higher but Stanford and Ok- ninth (88.650) and Donothan Bailey took 10th Legendre (All-Around, Floor, High Bar), lahoma had bigger start values and had a good (87.600). Jacob Dalton (Floor, Rings, Vault, Parallel meet. We did everything we could have done Six Bears qualified for the NCAA Individu- Bars, High Bar), Troy Nitzky (Rings), Alex today and I couldn't be more proud of every- al Championships - Kyle Bunthuwong one on this team." (pommel, high bar), Bryan del Castillo The Illini got off to a solid start on rings, as DALTON they tallied their highest score of the season BUNTHUWONG on the event with a 60.100, while Sacramento led the way with a 15.400 for a sixth-place finish. Next up on vault, Illinois had its share of struggles, but Mizoguchi closed out the event with a 16.300, which tied his career best, to place third and the momentum carried over to parallel bars. Naddour (All-Around, Pommel Horse, Vault) In the third rotation of the night, the Illini and Bobby Shortle (Floor) competed in the again set a new season high with a 60.000 on individual championships as each of the eight parallel bars, which also was a school record individuals in each event will be crowned All- under the FIG open ended code established in Americans. (See page ? for individual event 2008. Individually, Mizoguchi (15.600) and (pommel, parallel bars), Donothan Bailey results.) Padera (15.300) took first and second, respec- (pommel), Glen Ishino (pommel horse), Ste- Highlighting the meet for the Sooners was tively, with career-high scores, while Mizogu- ven Lacombe (rings), Christian Monteclaro Alex Naddour, finishing third in the all- chi's total broke his own school record on the (vault) around with a score of 89.750. Naddour post- event. On floor, del Castillo paced the Bears with a ed a career high score of 16.250 on vault to High bar was again shaky for the Illini, with 15.250, which was good for 13th place. Dan- help his total. Padera and Austin Phillips tying for 10th with iel Culpepper tied for 14th with a 15.200. Eric Other top scores for OU included Legendre a 14.600, before the Orange and Blue re- Haeussler was next in line, tying three others 16.20, Jacob Dalton 16.00, Bobby Shortle bounded on floor with a trio of career bests for 20th (15.000). Ishino rounded out the Cal 15.50 in FX; Alex Naddour 14.55, Troy Nitz- and another season-high team score. In the contributors with a 14.850. ke 14.40 in PH; Dalton 15.30 Troy Nitzky fifth rotation, Illinois posted a 61.050 on floor Kyle Bunthuwong led the way on high bar, 15.30, Ian Jackson 15.00, Nddour 15.00 in and Wiest paced the squad with a 15.600 for a notching a 15.100 to tie for third. Bailey tied SR; Naddour 16.25, Dalton 16.00, Legendre sixth-place finish. Mizoguchi added a career- for 13th with a 14.550 while del Castillo was 15.90 in Vault; Dalton 15.10, Naddour 15.00, high score of 15.350 to tie for eighth and also in 18th, along with two others, with a 14.450. Legendre 14.55 in PB; Dalton 14.90, Legen- producing career bests were Padera (15.100) Parallel bars saw del Castillo tie for ninth dre 14.80, Naddour 14.45 on HB. See page 6. and Yoshi Mori (15.000). with a 15.00 to best his fellow teammates. With a 1.7 lead over Oklahoma heading into Ishino tied for 13th with a 14.900. Haeussler UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS was right behind him in sole possession of The University of Illinois placed third at the 16th place, notching 14.750. 2011 NCAA Championships Friday night RIBEIRO Pommel horse was Ishino's highest finish of with a season-high score of 360.150 to secure the night for he took second place (15.100).