In 2019, the Cardinal captured its sixth national championship, ending the Oklahoma Sooners’ four-title streak. Now, No. 3 Stanford men’s gymnastics (5-1-1, 3-0-1 MPSF) looks to end another streak on Saturday held by No. 1 Oklahoma (6-0-1, 3-0-1 MPSF) — a dominant eight-title streak at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Championships.
The last time Stanford claimed victory at the MPSF Championships was in 2011.
In his 19th season, head coach Thom Glielmi, who claimed his fifth MPSF Coach of the Year award on Thursday, will look to guide his team to victory at the MPSF Championships for only the third time during his time at Stanford.
Glielmi will rely to junior Brody Malone, who earned his third-consecutive MPSF Gymnast of the Year award on Thursday and is the reigning College Gymnastics Association (CGA) and MPSF Gymnast of the Week, to put up strong performances across all six events.
Reigning CGA Specialist of the Week, junior Ian Gunther, claimed second-place finishes across three events — pommel horse, still rings and high bar — against No. 15 Army and will supplement the depth of Malone.
The CGA could not stop loving the Cardinal’s performance against the Black Knights last Saturday as it crowned freshman Brandon Nguyen with CGA Rookie of the Week honors.
Nguyen competed in four events with a solid 14.500 on the vault, finishing third on the apparatus behind Malone and sophomore Brandon Briones. Briones was able to stop Malone’s complete sweep of awards by claiming the vault title with a 14.700.
His consistency on the vault this season puts him as the second-best vaulter in the nation with a National Qualifying Average score of 14.850.
The Cardinal will look to capitalize on its best events — vault, parallel bars and still rings — as the team is ranked in the top-three nationally across the three.
Along with Oklahoma, Stanford will face No. 11 California and No. 13 Air Force at the MPSF Championships. A live broadcast of the meet can be watched here starting at 12:00 p.m. PT on Saturday.