Publication Date: Friday, January 21, 2005
Stanford Roundup
All-star field of gymnasts set to compete
All-star field of gymnasts set to compete
(January 21, 2005) Cardinal Open offers look at future of Stanford men's team
by Rick Eymer
The Stanford men's gymnastics team features two athletes - sophomore Peter Derman and senior Kelly Lang - who perform as part of their routine something no one else in the world is doing.
Derman is part of the top-ranked rings team in the nation and Lang does his thing on the high bar. Even more impressive is that freshmen David Sender and Sho Nakamori may be even better.
All four athletes, joined by their Stanford teammates, will be performing on Saturday at about 7 p.m. as part of the three-day Cardinal Open which gets underway today at 5 p.m. in Burnham Pavilion.
Today's action feature members of the 15-18 Junior Olympics age group. The top performers during that session will form an all-star team which will compete against the college teams, which include Stanford, Cal and Air Force, Arizona State and Washington.
The teenage squad features Greg Ter-Azkhariants, who signed to compete with Stanford next year, and Kyson Buthuwong, who signed with Cal.
The Open features six events competing simultaneously.
"It's a six-ring circus with high energy," Stanford coach Thom Glielmi said. "It will be a lot of fun."
Sender, Derman, sophomore Alex Schorsch and senior Daniel Torres-Rangel form the country's top rings team. Derman performs the "Victorian" as part of his routine, a skill that no one else is doing. The skill requires Derman to lift his body parallel to the ground, and arms extended, with his stomach facing upward.
"It looks like there are strings attached," said Glielmi, who was part of the 2000 Olympic coaching staff. "But there's nothing attached."
Sender, who competed at the Olympic Trials, is the defending senior national vault champion. Nakamura is a three-time junior national all-around champion.
"We're still keeping our eyes on the prize," Glielmi said. "We are still constructing routines we believe will be competitive in winning the NCAA title. We're taking risks early in the season which will lead to solid routines in 2 1/2 months."
Glielmi, who spent three years as an assistant coach at Minnesota before coming to Stanford in 2001, hopes his young team - five freshmen and five sophomores out of 14 members - will benefit from intensive training.
"We're pushing the high start point value," he said. "We're willing to train through the competition for the NCAA's. Because the team is so young, we'll have to make some decisions about their routines. You're going to see some big hits and big misses."
Stanford is the two-time defending Cardinal Open champion, an event that has been held for 12 years. San Jose State originally hosted the event as the Spartan Open until the school dropped the program and Stanford assumed hosting duties.
Competition at various levels continues Saturday and Sunday beginning at 7:30 a.m. Glielmi expects the event to sell out.
The Cardinal Open is one of just two home meets the men's team have on the schedule. Stanford returns to Maples Pavilion for a coed meet on March 6. The Cardinal hosts California in what Glielmi hopes to become an annual "Big Flip Off," with the women. This year, the Stanford women compete against Alabama.
Men's volleyball
The Stanford men's volleyball team may not be ready for prime time just yet, but senior setter Kevin Hansen expects the Cardinal to improve their showing over last year's sub-par performance.
Eighth-ranked Stanford split two Mountain Pacific Sports Federation matches over the weekend, beating visiting USC on Friday, 30-25, 30-28, 30-25 and lost to third-ranked Pepperdine, 28-30, 30-24, 31-29, 30-20, on Saturday.
Stanford lost to Long Beach State, 30-27, 30-23, 34-32, on Wednesday night. The Cardinal are at UC San Diego tonight.
"I expect a lot from this team," Hansen said. "After last year this team is focused. We know we can improve."
Stanford (1-2, 2-4) suffered through a dismal 6-16, 9-18 season last year, and coach Don Shaw thought winning that many was over achieving. With most of the team returning, though, expectations are a little higher. Winning a title, however, may be asking too much.
"They have a year's experience of playing together and we have improved at a couple of different positions," Shaw said. "Our hitting is a little bit better and we're more competitive but we're still undermanned. We have a lot of young guys who aren't ready to play at this level."
Junior Nick Manov and sophomore Josh Schwarzapel are out with injuries and that is affecting Stanford's depth. Shaw used just eight players against Pepperdine.
Stanford played The 49ers without junior Ben Reddy, the team's kills and service ace leader.
"Bottom line we need to find a way to win," Shaw said. "We need to be healthy."
The Cardinal do have Hansen, who recorded 126 assists in the three games to become just the fourth player in school history to reach 4,000 assists. He has 4,086 heading into today's game at San Diego State.
"It's pretty nice to be in the same league with some of the best Stanford setters but it doesn't mean that much now," Hansen said.
Hansen was an all-MPSF selection last year.
"He's one of the best setters in the country," Shaw said. "It's not a one-man show though. We have to have all the guys playing well together."
Stanford had a chance to beat Pepperdine. The Cardinal led late in both games two and three but weren't able to convert some key points.
Reddy had 17 kills against the Waves, while Craig Buell, David Vogel and William Clayton each had 10.
Against the Trojans, Reddy had 13 kills and Buell added 11.
Women's gymnastics
Stanford opens its season at Washington today at 7 p.m. with just eight healthy gymnasts, and five of them are freshmen, though the freshmen class is one of Stanford's most accomplished to ever enter the school.
The Cardinal, ranked third in the nation during the preseason, pulled out of the California quadrangular meet last Friday because of injuries and rescheduled it for next year. As a result, Stanford does not appear in the rankings this week as it doesn't have a team score yet.
Junior All-Americans Natalie Foley and Glyn Sweets lead Stanford into Seattle today, though both have been slowed by ankle injuries.
Freshmen Liz Tricase and Lauren Elmore are expected to perform in all four events against Washington, and along with fellow first-year performers Stephanie Gentry, Alex Pintchouk and Aimee Precourt, will be getting their first collegiate experience.
The freshmen are familiar with big meets though. Tricase finished 10th in the vault at the Olympic trials over the summer while Elmore was a Junior Olympic national all-around champion in 2003.
Washington will be without its top performer in senior Carly Dockendorf, out with a groin injury. Dockendorf won the all-around title, with featured a 10.0 score on the floor exercise, at the Cal State Fullerton quad meet last week.
Men's swimming
Top-ranked Stanford opens the Pac-10 season on the road this weekend, meeting Arizona State today, and No. 5 Arizona on Saturday.
The Cardinal have not lost to ASU since the 1990-91 season. The last Cardinal loss to the Wildcats came during the 1999-2000 season.
Last week, Stanford remained unbeaten in dual meet competition with a 144-107 victory over Pacific. The Cardinal recorded the top time in 15 of 16 events on the afternoon. Sophomore swimmer Andy Grant won three individual events while senior Jayme Cramer won two.
Stanford brings a 35-meet winning streak into today's contest. The Cardinal haven't lost a dual meet since 2000.
Women's swimming
Stanford will be in unfamiliar territory this weekend when it opens Pac-10 competition today at Arizona State and on Saturday at Arizona.
The eighth-ranked Cardinal, winners of 15 of the past 17 Pac-10 titles, including the past two, will be the underdogs in Tucson, where the Wildcats are waiting with their No. 4 ranking.
The Sun Devils are ranked No. 17.
Brooke Bishop, Laura Davis, Elizabeth Durot and Lacey Boutwell each won twice as Stanford defeated visiting Pacific, 159-96, in a nonconference dual meet last weekend.
"The meet served the purpose of preparing our team for the Pac-10 dual meet schedule," Stanford coach Richard Quick said. "We face two excellent teams, and although we did as well as we expected considering our intense training, we're going to have to improve quite a bit to succeed against the type of competition that both Arizona schools will bring."
Wrestling
Stanford enters the big-time world of collegiate wrestling when it travels to meet third-ranked Iowa State today.
The Cardinal (0-1, 3-2) also compete against Lock Haven.
Iowa State opened its season with 12 consecutive dual meet wins.
Cardinal wrestlers Scott Loescher (165 pounds) and Brennan Corbett (174) won titles at last weekend's Menlo Invitational, while Ray Blake, Mark Egesdal, Matt Tiffin and Larry Ozowara.
Defending NCAA champion Matt Gentry (157) will be wrestling for the first time since winning his division at the Midlands Invitational in late December.
Football
Stanford coach Walt Harris began assembling his staff last week, hiring six assistants, including three from last year's staff.
Harris announced the additions of A.J. Christoff, defensive coordinator; Tom Freeman, offensive line; Nathaniel Hackett, recruiting coordinator; Ben McAdoo, offensive line; Wayne Moses, running backs; Tom Quinn, defensive ends/outside linebackers/special teams.
Christoff and Quinn held similar positions at Stanford last season while Hackett has been an Assistant to the offensive and defensive coordinators for the past two years on the Farm.
"I'm very pleased with the quality of the staff," Harris said. "Included in this group are coaches with tremendous knowledge and experience on both the collegiate and professional levels. They know what it takes to be successful; they have a proven record of teaching, expertise and leadership."
Moses and Freeman were with Harris at Pittsburgh last year. Moses coached running backs at Stanford for two years before joining Harris' staff in Pittsburgh.
McAdoo was an offensive assistant and quality control coach last season with the New Orleans Saints.
Harris still has three positions to fill to complete his staff: defensive line, inside linebackers and wide receivers.
Stanford grad Ken Margerum will be coaching at San Jose State this season.
Women's tennis
Stanford senior Erin Burdette defeated Washington's Dea Sumantri, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2, to win the flight one singles championship of at the Pac-10 Indoor Championship in Seattle on Sunday.
Burdette teamed up with junior Anne Barnes to win the doubles championship.
Oregon's Davina Mendiburu defeated Stanford sophomore Anne Yelsey, 6-2, 6-2, in the championship of flight two singles.
Cardinal freshman Lejla Hodzic lost to Georgia's Shadisha Robinson, 6-3, 6-4, in the singles final at the Freeman Memorial Championships at UNLV.
Hodzic, who graduated from Pinewood, beat teammate Theresa Logar in the semifinals.
Men's tennis
Sophomore James Wan defeated teammate Phil Kao, 6-1, 6-1, to win the consolation singles title at the Sherwood Cup in Thousand Oaks on Monday.
Stanford senior Sam Warburg lost to UCLA's Philipp Gruendler, 7-5, 6-3, in the quarterfinals at the Sherwood Cup on Saturday.
Men's soccer
Stanford senior James Twellman was drafted by the San Jose Earthquakes with the 42nd overall pick in the fourth round of Major League Soccer's SuperDraft on Friday.
"I am very familiar with the San Jose Earthquakes organization, and am extremely excited to have the opportunity to play for such a great team," Twellman said. "I can't wait to contribute to a team that I have followed for some time."
Baseball
Stanford was picked to defend its Pac-10 title in a preseason poll of Pac-10 coaches released Friday.
The Cardinal, ranked No. 6 in the country in preseason polls by both Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball, has won the last two Pac-10 crowns, six in the last eight seasons and 20 in school history.
"It is nice that our team has received this much recognition in the preseason," Stanford coach Mark Marquess said. "But the most important thing is where you are at the end of the season and that is obviously what we are focusing on."
Softball
Stanford, which earned its second ever trip to the Women's College World Series last year, was picked to finish fourth in the Pac-10 by a vote of the conference coaches.
California was picked to win it, followed by Arizona and UCLA.
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