By JACOB JOHNSON

Stanford student athletes live busy lives. Balancing classes and athletics is tough enough when you’re only playing for one team. When you’re competing for two teams at the same time, busy doesn’t go far enough. Ask Sho Nakamori or David Sender of the Stanford Men’s Gymnastics team. The duo not only compete for Stanford, they are members of the USA Senior National Team.

“This year has been really busy juggling two seasons at once,” said Sho, a redshirt junior. “We’ve already had three international meets this year,” including a trip halfway around the world to compete at the World Cup in Qatar.

Surprisingly, this year Sender, a senior, actually feels better physically.

“My body is more rested, but mentally it has been tough going between teams,” he said. “I competed a lot more for Stanford last year because we had a lot of injuries to key guys.”

Sender, an Illinois native, was an Olympic Trials competitor and two-time U.S. champion on vault by the time he arrived on the Farm in 2004. As a freshman, he reached the finals at the NCAA Championships in parallel bars and was selected to the U.S. Senior National team after a great performance at the 2005 U.S. Nationals.

But Sender really broke out at the 2006 NCAA championship meet as a sophomore. He reached the finals in three events — including a national title on vault — and finished fifth in the all-around. Sender won the NCAA vault title again and finished fourth in the all-around in 2007 to establish himself as one of the top gymnasts in the nation.

“I don’t really think much of vault as an event — I always thought it wasn’t very hard,” said Sender, laughing. “I guess it just turned out that I was good at it.”

More than just the judges have seen how good Dave is on vault: after placing fourth in the event at the World Cup, USA Gymnastics took notice as well.

“They told me they were impressed at Qatar. It was a really tough field of competitors, so I was very proud of my performance.”

But Sender’s success in the gym hasn’t gone to his head. In fact, it may have motivated him further. When asked what he thought about his performance this year at Stanford and as a member of Team USA, he was very candid.

“Both my NCAA and international seasons have been OK, but not spectacular,” he said. “This year is important obviously because it is an Olympic year, but it is almost as important with NCAA Championships at home — and we have a good chance to win.”

While he is extremely busy, Sender does have a friend to share the journey, as Nakamori is his teammate. Sho has also found it difficult to compete for two teams at once, but he cites the depth of the Stanford team as the reason he doesn’t feel too guilty about leaving for international competitions.

“We’re lucky to have a lot of depth, and it has allowed [Sender and I] to compete internationally. We can put up any six guys on any event and still compete with the best teams in the nation.”

Like Sender, Nakamori’s success hasn’t affected his attitude. He is as motivated as ever to win a NCAA title and to represent his country at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. He will need that motivation to overcome a string of injuries that have nagged him this year.

The latest injury is a herniated disk in his back. He suffered the setback at the alumni meet two weeks ago and had to miss some training time. Nakamori tried to compete at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) championship meet last weekend, but was pulled from the lineup after the first event of the meet.

“The doctors said we’re going to ramp up the meds and do some physical therapy,” said Nakamori. “I should be ready to go next week.”

Last weekend, Stanford finished second at the MPSF conference meet. The No.1 ranked Cardinal did not perform well, and they know it.

But head coach Thom Glielmi doesn’t think that last weekend’s disappointment will carry over to the NCAA championships next week. In fact, he thinks it might be a good thing.

“Honestly, I’m glad we were flat last weekend,” said Glielmi. “You can be as well prepared as possible and still come out flat, so I’m glad we got it out of our system last weekend.”

“In addition,” he added, “we didn’t have Dylan [Carney] and [Nakamori] could only go for one event.”

Carney is the team’s co-captain and one of the Cardinal’s top competitors on high bar, vault, and floor exercise. With his and Nakamori’s return expected by NCAA Championships, the team is eager to make up for last week’s sub-par performance.

“I think [those struggles] lit a fire in us,” said Nakamori, “We’re stoked.”

The NCAA Championships begin April 17 at Maples Pavilion.

Contact Jacob Johnson at twoj@stanford.edu.