Stanford really put the wood to Michigan in their final home meet of the season.  Granted, Michigan was not at full strength, but Stanford still posted the season’s highest team score (361.40) by far.  Did they send a message?  Well, if you consider the fact they scored over 60 points on floor, rings and vault, and also over 58 points on the remaining events, then they probably did!  Stanford Coach Thom Gliemli has been tinkering with his lineup all season, giving his young freshmen upstarts, like Eddie Penev and James Fosco, some valuable experience to take to the post season.  Speaking of which, Penev scored a 15.45 to win floor, and Fosco nailed down the nation’s second highest score on rings (15.40).  We’d also be remiss if we didn’t mention John Martin’s 15.40 on pommel horse, which is the nation’s second highest score on that event.

When the smoked cleared, Stanford jumped up to number two in the lastest GymInfo rankings. As for Oklahoma, they breezed to another victory over Minnesota, and are now the number-one ranked team. The Sooners have two of the top four all-arounders in Jake Dalton and Steven Legendre.  They are also the top-ranked team on floor and vault.  Nebraska will host Stanford and Oklahoma on Sunday in arguably the biggest shootout of the regular season.

The 2010 Tyson America American Cup will be broadcast live on NBC on Saturday, March 6 at 1:00pm EST.  Also, Universal Sports will provide a live webcast on Saturday from 11:30 EST to 3:00pm EST.  Jonathan Horton and Chris Brooks will represent the U.S. in a very strong field.

Andy Thornton posted some great Winter Cup videos of eight of America’s best on pommel horse… Alex Naddour, Daniel Ribeiro, Steven Spencer, Luke Stannard, Chris Cameron, Mel Anton Santander, Dylan Akers and Craig Hernandez.  Notice that two of these gymnasts (Hernandez and Akers) are still in high school.  Hernandez, by the way, finished 4th.  Thornton’s observation reinforces our opinion that America is getting much stronger on pommel horse.  He is correct when he noted that "this group of guys blows the 2008 Olympic Trials guys out of the water on this event… exactly what our team needs."  Indeed!