The evening of April 17, 2009 was one heck of a night. The fans at the University of Minnesota Sports Pavilion in Minneapolis, Minn. were sitting on the edge of their seats, wondering if top-seeded Stanford would finally edge bitter rival University of Oklahoma for the 2009 NCAA Men’s Gymnastics Championship title.
It was a night similar to that of April 18, 2008, when Oklahoma pushed past Stanford by less than half a point to capture the 2008 Championship. That championship, hosted by Stanford in front of its home crowd at Maples Pavilion, was supposed to belong to Stanford. That championship, like the 2009 championship, came down to the very last man on his very last routine of the night.
That championship did something to Stanford. After what can only be described as a devastating, mind-numbing, tear-out-your-heart loss, the men of the Stanford men’s gymnastics team did the only thing they could do. They went back to the gym. They went back to the floor that haunted them and the horse that taunted them. They went back to their tangled rings and their slippery bars and promised themselves that a new day would come.
And when that day came — when the very last man on his very last routine of the night on April 17, 2009 stuck his dismount — it was Stanford that came out on top.
“It was unbelievably energizing,” said redshirt junior Nick Noone. “I sat down after my last routine and saw all of my teammates channeling every ounce of positive energy they had into the guys still to go. Suddenly, what’s usually seen as an individual sport had turned into a team sport.”
And on April 16, 2010, Stanford is poised to do it again. With five new recruits and a dozen former national champions on the team, Stanford has the talent, the experience, the freshness and the depth to capture yet another national title.
On one hand, there is Ben Rudolph, the wide-eyed freshman recruit from Chicago. The son of a former men’s collegiate gymnastics star, Rudolph spent his junior and senior years of high school anticipating his turn with Stanford men’s gymnastics. After flying from his windy hometown to sunny Palo Alto for the 2008 NCAA Championship and purchasing a ticket to Minneapolis for the 2009 Championship, Rudolph’s dream finally came true. But so far, his time at Stanford hasn’t been easy. He confesses that it has been a tough adjustment: the training is harder, the competitors are stronger and the expectations are out of this world. None of that, though, deters Rudolph from his ultimate goal. “I’m just so ready to compete,” he said.
On the other hand, there is Abhinav Ramani, current junior and co-captain. Once a boy who was so self-reportedly miserable at baseball that his mother all but forced him into gymnastics at a friend’s suggestion, Ramani is a gymnastics natural who has unfortunately spent more time in rehabilitation than in competition at Stanford. After breaking his wrist early in his collegiate career, Ramani has been frustratingly sidelined by three similar injuries that have kept him in therapy and forced him to relearn the tricks that give his routines their competitive edge.
That’s not to say Ramani hasn’t enjoyed his time with Stanford men’s gymnastics. While not part of the line-up at last years NCAA Championship, Ramani still found himself on the floor helping chalk up equipment and keeping the team’s energy high. That motivating presence was exactly what led his fellow gymnasts to name him one of their captains. In his new role, Ramani is excited to see how the new team faces the season’s upcoming challenges.
“With five new guys, we bring a less experienced team to the table,” Ramani said. “But that doesn’t make us any weaker.” With no broken wrist to mend this time around, Ramani is ready to lead his team to a consecutive championship title.