With postseason competition on the horizon, No. 2 Stanford men’s gymnastics did not let its final regular season matchup go to waste, sweeping No. 11 Cal on all apparatuses, defeating the Bears 422.900-406.000 to claim the team title at home on Saturday.
Senior standout Akash Modi racked up four individual titles in the meet, earning the top score on floor, pommel horse, parallel bars and the all-around. Modi’s fifth all-around title was won with a combined score of 87.650, his third highest score of the season. Fellow senior Taylor Seaton claimed a pair of titles, taking the vault and high bar events. Sophomore Josiah Eng completed the sweep with an individual victory on the still rings.
Saturday afternoon celebrated the contributions of Stanford’s five graduating seniors — Modi, Seaton, Jordan DeClerk, Andrew Misiolek and Drew Willoughby. The five have been reliable performers throughout the season and have been part of successful Cardinal squads in the past three years, leading Stanford to two second-place finishes and one third-place finish at the national championships.
Stanford started the meet with a season-high team score of 73.600 on the floor exercise, a trouncing that saw the Cardinal take all but one of the top five scores on the event. Modi delivered a season-best 15.250 for a first-place finish.
The Cardinal continued their momentum on pommel horse as Stanford seniors filled the podium. Modi took first with a score of 14.550, followed by Willoughby (14.150) and Misiolek (13.750). The team would add to its lead with stellar performances on still rings, capped by Eng’s 14.200, his fifth event title on the apparatus this season.
Vault proved successful for Stanford as well, with Seaton (14.850), Modi (14.600) and freshman Bailey Perez (14.500) rounding out the top three. Perez’s score was a career best, as the freshman class continues to show that although the Cardinal will surely miss the graduating seniors next year, the team is in good hands in the future.
Up by more than 11 points after four rotations, Stanford did not let up on parallel bars. The team posted a season-high 71.500 on the event, led yet again by Modi (15.400). DeClerk (14.650) and junior Robert Neff (14.250) took second and third place, respectively.
Seaton closed out the meet with his first title-winning high bar performance of the year, earning a score of 14.300. The score put Stanford ahead of Cal by nearly 17 points, a confidence-boosting blowout to end the regular season.
Stanford will begin postseason competition next Saturday at the MPSF Championships. The team will seek its fifth conference title at the meet, which is set to start at 4 p.m. in Berkeley.
Contact Laura Anderson at lauraand ‘at’ stanford.edu.