For the past five years, Cal has hosted the Stanford Cardinal in its gymnastics season opener and if past precedence foreshadows what is to come, Stanford needs a huge performance. In both 2008 and 2009, Stanford came in ranked No. 1 in the nation, yet both years the Cardinal was upset by its rival from across the Bay.
That said, things are looking up for the Cardinal this time around. Coming off a phenomenal 2009 season that ended with an NCAA Team Championship title, Stanford begins its 2010 season with one of the strongest groups of men in recent team history despite graduating three of its top athletes, according to head coach Thom Glielmi.
“We are a different team than last year, [but] we definitely have greater scoring potential,” he said.
Senior Tim Gentry, team co-captain and current U.S. senior national team member, added, “Most of our line-up still consists of experienced underclassmen, so I don’t foresee any major problems.”
In fact, Gentry is confident that Stanford can finally beat Cal in this competition, the first of three one-on-one challenges between the Cardinal and Golden Bears this year. According to Gentry, it all comes down to each team’s start values. Stanford’s start values, he urges, give them an advantage over Berkeley — and those start values may just be what this particular meet comes down to.
Gymnastics is a complex sport in which perfect scores are literally limitless. The highest score any gymnast can receive depends on his routine’s start value. If, for example, Glielmi (himself a former gymnast) has a floor exercise routine with a start value of 16.0 and executes each flip and twist perfectly, he will score a 16.0. That’s a perfect score for him, but not necessarily for the entire world of gymnastics. The more wow-factor stunts gymnasts pile into their routines, the higher their start values go. To today’s gymnasts, impressive start values run in the 15.0 to 16.0 range.
Last Friday, the Stanford men revealed some of their start values in an intrasquad meet — an effort to introduce Stanford’s newcomers to the collegiate arena and to reinvigorate Stanford’s veterans — and demonstrated just how much scoring potential they really have.
Two events that captured Stanford’s impressive scoring potential were floor exercise and vault. During last week’s intrasquad meet, Gentry, an All-American on the event, nailed his handspring double pike, earning a high 15.1 and continued on to catapult through a double front vault for another high score. While few other team members showcased their talents on these events due to injury, rumor has it that fans can enjoy intricately exciting sets from juniors Alex Buscaglia (another U.S. senior national team member) and Josh Dixon and freshman Eddie Penev.
And on still rings, another key event for Stanford, junior Ryan Lieberman stuck his full twisting double layout dismount during Friday’s competition, while freshman James Fosco showed off his incredible strength despite a broken toe that prevented him from revealing a stunning aerial conclusion.
The Golden Bears, on the other hand, may outperform Stanford on parallel bars and pommel horse, their two strongest events.
Returning with the Golden Bears in their team’s first competitive meet of the season are sophomores Glen Ishino and Jim Kerry, 2009 All-Americans on parallel bars. Ishino is also a 2009 All-American on pommel horse and the 2009 season opener’s pommel horse champion.
But for Stanford, the focus is less on winning this particular competition and more on improving throughout the season. Freshman Paul Hichwa is simply excited to see how his new team stacks up against another stellar team.
“I know Cal has a lot of talent,” the high bar specialist said, “so it should be a great way to start off our season.”
And according to Glielmi, Stanford’s ultimate line-up has yet to be determined and will largely depend on how much the team improves in difficulty and performance in each meet in January.
Friday’s meet will take place at 7:30 p.m. at Haas Pavilion in Berkeley.