Vaulting for a national berth Vaulting for a national berth (August 17, 2005)

Sophomore David Sender secure his spot on U.S. team

by Nathan Kurz

Stanford men's gymnastics coach Thom Glielmi must be smiling somewhere this week. Cardinal rising star David Sender continued his international gymnastics career Friday after qualifying for the 2005 U.S. National Team with a second-place finish at the Visa Championships in Indianapolis.

Sender, a sophomore, posted an all-around score of 105.5, including a 9.575 on vault, his strongest event. Last year, he finished 14th in the all-around competition and won the vault title.

"I'm still in a little bit of disbelief," Sender said. "It was pretty exciting to go out there and do as well as I did. I am not sure I expected to do this well, but I definitely knew the opportunity was there. I was focusing on going out there and hitting each individual event."

Stanford grad David Durante finished third in the all-around and also qualified for the national team. Sender's teammate, fellow sophomore Sho Nakamori, finished in eighth place at the championships and could find his way onto the national team roster when USA gymnastics adds six additional athletes in the coming weeks.

At the National Senior Diving Championships in Hunterville, N.C., Stanford junior Cassidy Krug captured her first national title of any kind after winning a gold medal in the synchronized three-meter springboard with partner Nancilea Underwood on Thursday. Krug also took third in the three-meter springboard finals over the weekend.

Meanwhile, at the World University Games in Izmir, Turkey, Stanford junior Kyle Ransom highlighted local participation by swimming the third leg of the U.S. bronze medal-winning 400-meter free relay team.

The Americans entered the finals seeded sixth but finished behind only France and Great Britain.

"No one expected us to win, so considering that, I thought we had an outstanding performance," Ransom said. "It all worked out really well."

Cardinal sophomore Caroline Bruce finished fifth in the 200 IM after qualifying second behind eventual gold medalist Qi Hui of China. Fellow sophomore Shaun Phillips helped the men's 200 freestyle relay team qualify second but didn't swim in the finals in which the Americans took bronze.

Both U.S. basketball teams swept through pool play undefeated over the weekend with help from a few Stanford basketball players.

In the Americans' 94-47 opening-round win over Iran Friday, Chris Hernandez and Matt Haryasz nailed two three-pointers each and combined for 18 points as members of the starting lineup.

According to TheBootleg.com, Hernandez worked his way into the starting lineup due to his defense - perhaps as a direct result of some work he's put in since auditioning for NBA teams in June. Haryasz also started the first game, but neither he nor Hernandez started the next two as U.S. coach Jay Wright rotated Duke's Sheldon Williams and Villanova's Randy Foye into the lineup. "I think we have a very balanced scoring team," Wright said.

The Americans also beat Slovakia and Germany over the weekend and played China in the first game of the preliminary second round yesterday.

Fellow Cardinal hoopster Brooke Smith scored 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting as the U.S. women's team beat Poland 89-63 to finish first in Group B. The squad opened quarterfinal play with a game against Taiwan yesterday.

Stanford's Kevin Hansen and the USA men's volleyball team were eliminated from medal contention after losing Monday to Slovakia 25-21, 25-15, 25-19. The U.S team also dropped matches to France and Belgium over the weekend.

Of local note, Menlo College's Sara Fulp-Allen took one of two bronze medals in the women's 105.5 pound division by beating a semifinal loser.

In other Stanford news: * All-American Candice Wiggins was named a pre-season Wooden Award Candidate Monday as one of the top thirty players in women's college basketball. Wiggins, who averaged 17.5 points and 2.43 steals per game became the first freshman in Pacific-10 Conference history to win conference player of the year honors. * Stanford senior Lauren Lappin, along with Cardinal grads Jessica Mendoza and Dana Sorensen, were among the 35 players invited to participate at the U.S. National Team selection camp in Chula Vista, Calif. September 6-10. The chosen team will compete at the qualifying tournament for the 2006 World Championships in Beijing and the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro.

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