Great Men’s Gymnastics at 2009 Stanford Open
Posted on 28 January 2009 by admin
The 2009 Stanford Open took place January 23-25. As usual, the folks on The Farm put on a good show. A special thanks to Meet Director Doni Thompson and Meet Co-Directors Tom Langenstein and Michael Diliberto for their great hospitality.
The Stanford Open is one of the premier annual events for men’s gymnastics. The highlight of the weekend was the NCAA competition featuring host Stanford, Cal and Nebraska. Competing alongside the college guys were some top-notch clubbers who competed in Friday night’s qualifier.
A surprise for many in the packed Burnham Pavilion was the appearance of 2008 U.S. All-Around Champion David Sender. He didn’t disappoint while treating gym fans to an evening of great gymnastics. This was a nice tune-up for next month’s Winter Cup Challenge and Tyson American Cup.
The top clubbers in Friday night’s competition were Junior National Team member Jake Dalton (16-18) from Gym Nevada, Jeff Langenstein (16-18) from San Mateo, Steve Lacombe (16-18) from Azarian, and Junior National Team members Adrian De Los Angeles (14-15) from SCATS and Dominic Morris (14-15) from Black Hills. All five gymnasts advanced to Saturday night’s club all-star competition.
For the second weekend in a row, Cal upended Stanford, powered by their strong performances on pommel horse. Nebraska finished in third place. The top three all-arounders in the collegiate competition were Cal’s Kyle Bunthuwong, Stanford’s Sho Nakamori and Cal’s Glen Ishino.
Bunthuwong’s 88.70 was a career high, and earned him the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation’s gymnast of the week. Ishino won the honor the previous weekend after he won the all-around in Cal’s win over Stanford.
An added treat for the younger gymnasts during the Saturday club competition was to receive their medals from the 2008 Olympic team alternate and Stanford Assistant Coach, David Durante. On Sunday the boys were also rewarded with the appearance of Sho Nakamori, who handed out the medals and judged the floor competition.
January 29th, 2009 at 9:34 am
WOW those are some awsome scores by the NCAA guys! Especially on Pommel Horse and High Bar. Who are the top 5 guys on those two events in the NCAA in your opinion?
January 29th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
That’s tough to say. On pommel, PSU’s Sandy is good. Others include Sho and Ribeiro(IL). Ishino is amazing too. On bar, Ruggeri(IL) is the defending champ. OU’s Brooks is good and so is Dixon. Coming up with a top 5 for each event is pretty tough at this time.
January 29th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
ya I am sure… especially with only seeing the freshman in 2 or 3 meets. I’m sure we will get a clearer picture possible as the season goes on… not that gymnastics is EVER predictable.