The No. 4 Stanford men’s gymnastics team won its qualifier group, earning a place in the Super Six — the six remaining squads that will compete tonight for the NCAA championship. Stanford scored a 216.350 for first place; second-place Illinois (216.300) and third-place Michigan (215.350) also advanced to the final. Michigan edged pre-meet favorite Ohio State by one tenth of a point on the final routine of the competition.

The Cardinal tallied the highest team score in four out of six events: the pommel horse, rings, vault and high bar. Stanford started strong with a dominant performance on the first rotation, scoring 38.25 points on the rings. All five athletes recorded a 9.10 or better on the rings, and the Cardinal never looked back. Three Stanford athletes were the top scorers in their respective events: sophomore Bryant Hadden in the rings (9.700), senior Dylan Carney on the high bar (9.650) and junior Chris Harper on the pommel horse (9.200). Additionally, junior David Sender put forth a well-rounded effort, finishing as the runner-up in the all-around competition.

The performance by the Cardinal squad was encouraging for tonight’s finals and left the team feeling good about its chances to win it all.

“We trained all year to peak at [tonight’s] meet,” coach Thom Glielmi said. “It’s going to be really exciting.”

At press time, Stanford, Illinois and Michigan were still awaiting the results of competition to determine the second half of the Super Six. Last night, Penn State, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Temple, Minnesota and California vied for the three remaining spots in the NCAA Championship finals.