Feb. 16, 2008

Complete Results in PDF Format

STANFORD, Calif. - The second-ranked Stanford Cardinal defeated the No. 12 Nebraska Cornhuskers in their first home dual-meet, 357.600-341.150, tonight at Burnham Pavilion. The Cardinal easily had one of their best meets of the year in which they outscored the Huskers as a team in five of the six events, and 20 individual season bests were established.

The Cardinal had their best performance of the season on pommel horse, recording a 58.150. Stanford also captured first, second, and third in floor exercise, pommel horse, vault and high bar. In vault alone, Stanford had four gymnasts score over a 15.000.

Junior Bryant Hadden led the Cardinal in the absence of Olympic hopefuls David Sender and Sho Nakamori, who were given the evening off. Hadden recorded season bests in all five of his events. He did not compete in vault. Hadden won first place in parallel bars (15.200), tied for first place in still rings (14.900) with Nebraska's Tony Maras and received second place in pommel horse (15.050) and high bar (14.700).

Senior Eli Alcaraz had his best meet of the year so far, achieving season-high scores in both floor exercise (14.900) and vault (15.800). Alcaraz capped his night by nailing the landing on his vault attempt to capture the event title, and the season-high score for the Cardinal.

Redshirt freshman Nick Noone also recorded two season bests in his two events, still rings (14.00) and parallel bars (14.700), and senior Chris Harper accomplished his season best in pommel horse (15.150).

Freshman Ryan Lieberman was the only Stanford gymnast to compete in all-around tonight and earned his best all-around finish so far, scoring 87.050 total. He also tallied three other season highs tonight in floor exercise, pommel horse, and vault.

Redshirt sophomore Greg Ter-Zakhariants earned the top finish in floor exercise (15.750) establishing his personal and the team's highest season finish in that event. He also captured third in vault (15.500).

Stanford denied Nebraska from winning any outright first place finishes, as the Huskers could only tie for the top finish in still rings. Nebraska was only able to get the better of the Cardinal in still rings, defeating Stanford by a tenth of a point. With the win tonight, Stanford improves to 9-1 overall.

Stanford will next compete on February 23, when they take a short trip across the Bay Bridge to compete in the Pacific Coast Collegiate Classic at the Oakland Convention Center in Oakland, Calif. Stanford will be joined by California, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and Oklahoma. The competition will start at 7:30 p.m. and will be televised on tape-delay on Fox Sports Net in March.