The No. 4 Stanford men’s gymnastics team had a busy weekend, facing Ohio State on Friday and then wrapping up its regular season against University of Illinois-Chicago on Sunday.
The Cardinal had a tough test on Friday against No. 5 Ohio State, but handled the challenge with ease and beat the Buckeyes 355.800-347.400. This meet marked the third consecutive meet that the Cardinal has posted a season-high score, beating its previous high of 351.400, which it tallied last week in a loss to the No. 1 University of Oklahoma.
Stanford won five of the six events against Ohio State, led by Junior Eddie Penev, who won the all-around competition with a score of 87.750 and the individual floor exercise with a 15.650. Junior James Fosco won rings (15.500), sophomore Cale Robinson won vault (15.500) and junior Cameron Foreman won high bar (15.200) and parallel bars (14.750). Robinson’s vault score tied a season-best for the Cardinal, while Foreman’s high bar score set a new season-high.
In its second meet of the weekend, the Cardinal nearly eclipsed its season-high score once again, beating host University of Illinois-Chicago 355.500-337.800 in an easy win to close out the regular season.
Stanford won all six team events and had five individual winners: junior John Martin on pommel horse (15.700), Fosco on rings (16.000), freshman Sean Senters on vault (14.900), Foreman on parallel bars (15.200) and Penev on high bar (14.400).
The Cardinal next competes on April 7 at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships in Colorado. The extended break will help the team recover some of its injured competitors and allow the squad to field a more complete squad as playoffs begin.
In addition to the men’s team capturing a pair of wins this weekend, the No. 11 Stanford women’s gymnastics team wrapped up its regular season at Arizona State on Friday by earning its third consecutive victory. The Cardinal eclipsed the Sun Devils by a score of 196.475-194.975 and extended its winning streak over the Sun Devils to 19 matches.
The meet was highlighted by the Cardinal’s effort on beam, as the team posted a season-high 49.350 in the event, beating its previous best score of 49.175. Only twice has the team had a better event score than 49.350, both 49.400s on the uneven bars. Senior Alyssa Brown won the event with a score of 9.925, one of three scores of 9.9 or better in the event. Sophomore Amanda Spinner and freshman Ivana Hong both scored 9.900s on beam, as all three either set or tied their season-high scores in the event.
Senior Nicole Pechanec posted a career-best 9.950 in uneven bars to win the event, a score that has only been achieved once before for the Cardinal this season, as junior Ashley Morgan put up the same score on floor last week. Morgan won floor again this week, scoring a 9.850 to tie with Hong.
The team’s score of 196.475 was its second best of the season. The team’s win improved the Cardinal’s record to 10-3 as it goes into the Pac-12 Championships in two weeks at Utah.