Cardinal sweeps through Windy City

The No. 1 Stanford men’s gymnastics team outclassed its competition from the Midwest last Saturday at the Windy City Invitiational, taking the event with a final score of 353.450. The Cardinal’s competition at the event was a quartet of Big Ten schools — Michigan, Ohio State, Minnesota and Iowa — to go along with the event’s host, the University of Illinois-Chicago.

The men were able to back up their billing as the No. 1 team in the country since their opponents all came into the weekend with top-10 rankings.

In particular, the Cardinal was led by the efforts of senior David Sender and juniors Sho Nakamori and Bryant Hadden. Sender was the top scorer for the event, tallying 89.600 on Saturday. Nakamori, who will represent the USA at the Beijing Invitational alongside Sender, finished in second place in the horizontal bar. Hadden placed third in rings, third in pommel bar and second in the parallel bars.

Stanford will be back in action on Friday when it faces archrival Cal on the road. The match will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Haas Pavilion.

Buehler, Wildman-Tobriner honored by NCAA

When the NCAA announced the eight recipients of the annual NCAA Top VIII Award this week, two Cardinal athletes were on the list, making Stanford the only school with multiple honorees.

Senior Rachel Buehler, an All-Conference defender on the women’s soccer team, and Ben Wildman-Tobriner ‘07 of the men’s swimming team were recognized for their achievements in competition, in the classroom and in the community.

Since the end of the season, Buehler has been racking up the awards. She has already been named Lowe’s Senior Class Award First Team, Top Drawer All-American, ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American of the Year, US Soccer Young Female Athlete Award Finalist, Soccer Buzz Player of the Year Finalist, Toyo Tires Pac-10 Scholar-Athlete of the Year and NSCAA All-American.

A week ago, she was called up to National Team duty, joining the 24-woman roster for Olympic qualifying later this year.

Wildman-Tobriner was a 20-time All-American in his four years at Stanford and was the 2007 Pac-10 Swimmer of the Year. He was also named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American First Team and received a Pac-10 Medal given to the conference’s most outstanding senior swimmer each year.

Wildman-Tobriner was a member of the 2005 National Championship 400 medley relay and graduated with the top times in Stanford history in two events, the 50 and 100 freestyle. In the NCAA Championships in March, he recorded the top three times in American history in the 50 free. Later that month, he won two gold medals at the FINA World Championships, in the 50-meter freestyle and as a member of the winning 400-meter freestyle relay team.

Joining Buehler and Wildman-Tobriner on the list are Georgia Tech golfer Robert Castro, Oregon football player Dennis Dixon, Nebraska volleyball player Sarah Pavan, Calvin College basketball player Lisa Winkle, Clarion University diver Jamie Wolf and runner Sarah Zerzan from Willamette.