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NewsvineThe No. 8 Stanford men’s gymnastics team will travel to Las Vegas to compete in the Winter Cup this weekend. The two-day event featuring top-notch competitors will culminate with the finals on Saturday night.
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The Cardinal hope to perform well after a disappointing loss to No.7 California two weeks ago at the Cardinal Open. The Bay Area rivals are playing a game of cat and mouse, flip-flopping in the rankings over the past few weeks, but the Cardinal will face more pressure from other NCAA teams this weekend.
Head coach Thom Glielmi attributed much of the Cardinal Open’s disappointment to the men’s excitement for their first home meet. The Cardinal should be calmer and more mentally prepared this weekend.
Some of the top-ranked teams will compete at the tournament, including Penn State, Temple, Military, Illinois, Iowa and Michigan. Washington will also participate, but as a club team. Illinois is currently ranked No. 2, closely followed by No. 3 Michigan. Both pose major competition to the Cardinal.
The Winter Cup is organized into two sessions: Session 1 will be competing Senior National Team Members and Session 2 will include participants from the Senior All-Around Finals from the 2004 U.S. Championships. Freshman David Sender and sophomore Jason Shen will be the only Cardinal athletes to compete in Session 1.
Only five of the Cardinal pre-qualified this weekend, including sophomores Dylan Carney and Shen and freshmen Chris Harper, Sho Nakamori and Sender. Each of these men is under considerably more pressure to perform well.
The team can bring six gymnasts, although only five of the scores are counted for the final tally. However, the young Cardinal athletes competing in Las Vegas are prepared to face their hardest challenge so far this season.
Sender is healthy and expected to perform well this weekend, especially on his strength routine, the rings. He was one of the top competitors at the Cardinal Open, winning the All-Around, in addition to earning the team’s highest scores on the still rings and the vault. Although Nakamori struggled throughout the Cardinal Open, he says he is mentally more prepared for this meet.
Harper also had an extremely difficult routine on the pommel horse at the Cardinal Open, but he has fine-tuned many of the skills in preparation for this weekend. Carney is currently tied for No. 9 on the floor exercise after earning a 9.45 at the Cardinal Open, the team’s highest score.
Glielmi says he is hoping that Stanford’s second-ranked rings team will help propel the Cardinal to a victory this weekend, although they have also been more focused on the vault.
The team competition will begin Friday at 5:30 p.m., and the finals will be held on Saturday at 6:30 p.m.