March 21, 2002

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Upcoming Action . . .
The tenth ranked Stanford men's gymnastics team will head to Colorado Springs, Colo. for the MPSF Championships on March 22 and 23. Stanford will face conference rivals No. 3 Oklahoma (11-1), No. 7 California (11-3), No. 13 Nebraska (2-9), No. 14 Santa Barbara (4-5) and No. 17 Air Force (2-14). Competition will begin with the All-Around and team finals on Friday at 7 p.m. and conclude with the individual event finals on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Coaching Changes...
The 2002 season will be the final one for head coach Sadao Hamada, who will retire after this year. Hamada will be succeeded by Thom Glielmi, who is serving as an assistant coach this year. The 2002 season will be the 30th for Hamada, who coached multiple individual NCAA Champions and Olympians. Steve Hug from the 70's and Jair Lynch from the 90's helped give Hamada one of the most successful programs in the country as he captured two conference titles and three NCAA Championships. Gilemi comes to The Farm after spending the past three seasons at the University of Minnesota where he was named the 2001 Assistant Coach of the Year.

A Cardinal Tint to the National Rankings...
Stanford, currently ranked 10th in the nation, also holds top spots in individual events. The Cardinal is No. 7 on floor, No. 12 on the pommel horse, No. 9 on rings, No. 8 on vault, No. 12 on parallel bars and No. 6 on the horizontal bar. On the individual side, junior Marshall Erwin - MPSF Gymnast of the Week on March 12 - is the nation's No. 1 rings specialist after posting three 9.950's this season. Sophomore Dan Gill is No. 2 on vault, No. 11 on floor, and 17th on parallel bars. Senior Rico Andrade is sixth on the horizontal bar and rounding out the field for Stanford is senior Dave Durante who is the No. 4 All-Arounder in the country and currently ranked 14th on rings and 20th on the pommel horse.

Regular Season Wrap-Up...
Stanford closed out its regular season with a 214.700-214.550 upset over second-ranked Oklahoma. Junior Marshall Erwin tallied his second straight 9.950 on rings to lead the Cardinal to victory and senior Rico Andrade notched a 9.150 on the horizontal bar to wrap up the meet and secure the Stanford victory. Sophomore Dan Gill posted his highest mark on vault with a 9.550 as the team se new season records on three events en route to its highest overall score in 2002.