The Stanford men’s gymnastics team had its eyes set on a national championship, but came up just short last Friday in State College, Penn. The Cardinal took third place with a final score of 218.45, finishing behind Oklahoma (220.20) and the new national champion, Penn State (221.00).

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Alvin Chow

Stanford fell just short of a national title in Happy Valley this weekend, finishing third for the second consecutive year. Freshman Lucas Hughes earned a mark of 8.70 on the parallel bars, an event in which the Cardinal struggled overall.

Once again, Stanford competed very well across the board, but mishaps on the pommel horse and parallel bars plagued the Cardinal squad, as it finished third for the second consecutive year.

“We obviously wanted to win the championship,” junior David Sender said. “But when you look at the big picture, we still ended up third, and that is nothing to be ashamed of.”

Despite the third-place overall finish, Stanford clearly asserted its national dominance on the still rings. For the second consecutive day, the Cardinal led all teams in the event, tallying a score of 38.650. Seniors Peter Derman and Alex Schorsch, along with sophomore Bryant Hadden and Sender, all scored above a 9.5.

Another strong event for the team was the floor exercise, where Hadden was the top scorer with a 9.50, and sophomore Greg Ter-Zakhariants, junior Eli Alcaraz and senior Dylan Carney all scored above a 9.3. The score was especially impressive in that the Cardinal competed during Penn State’s final rotation. With a blue-and-white clad crowd erupting at the end of every Nittany Lion routine, often right in the middle of a Cardinal performance, Stanford’s gymnasts stayed focused. The Cardinal held the crowd off and managed to finish the rotation without many errors.

Still, the Cardinal was unable to parlay fantastic individual efforts into a team victory.

“All the teams performed surprisingly well,” Sender said. “So to do as well as we did, when all the teams did a lot better than we expected, is no bad feat.”

More top performances for the Cardinal included four athletes who led the competition in separate events: Sender had the high on the vault with a 9.30, junior Chris Harper on the pommel horse with a 9.30, Carney on the high bar with a 9.70, and Schorsch on the rings with an outstanding 9.80. Several other athletes also toppled their previous season bests.

The Cardinal moved next to the individual event finals on Saturday, where the team finished its season strong. Two Stanford athletes were crowned national champions and another three gained All-American status. Sender, the defending NCAA vault champion, defended his title with a 9.30, although Pejman Ebrahimi of Ohio State also scored a 9.30 to earn a share of the title.

“It feels good to win the vault again,” Sender said. “Having to share the title was a tad disappointing, but two years in a row is great.”

Additionally, Schorsch ended his Stanford career on a high note. He avenged a runner-up effort from last year with an outright NCAA title this year, winning the still rings with a score of 9.75.

Among other finishes, Harper took third on the pommel horse (9.20), Derman placed sixth in the rings (9.60) and Carney took seventh in the high bar (9.05). Carney, the defending champion in the event, stumbled during his routine and was unfortunately denied his second title in a row.

“It was a pretty good day,” coach Thom Glielmi said. “It was unfortunate that Dylan missed on the high bar. I can’t tell you the last time he missed a high bar routine.”

Stanford concludes the season with much to be proud of: The Cardinal finished with five All-American athletes and a strong showing at the NCAA Championships for the second straight year. The team now welcomes a few days off this week before returning to training.

The Cardinal men will have to wait another year to earn a national championship, but two straight third-place finishes should certainly be the right kind of motivation to get them there.