July 22, 2009

Complete Release

Stanford, Calif. - Stanford set a new standard in men's gymnastics by becoming the first team in the sport's long history to win the national academic team title and the NCAA team championship in the same year. Stanford earned the 2009 national academic title by combining for a team grade point average of 3.394.

This past April, the Cardinal captured their fourth NCAA title in team history by defeating second-place Michigan by 1.3 points. Just as at the NCAA Championships, a total team effort was used to compile the highest team GPA in the nation.

Stanford had three individuals named first team All-American Scholar-Athletes, as well as six more named to the second team. Abhinav Ramani led Stanford with the highest team GPA and was joined by teammates Lucas Hughes and Kyle Oi on the first team. Ramani is being honored for the first time, while Hughes was also a member of the first team in 2007 and Oi was a second team member in 2008.

Stanford has had three four-time first team Academic All-Americans in the program's history. Peter Derman (2004-07), Brice Rolston (2004-07) and Dylan Carney (2005-08) were all honored as such. After earning the honor following his redshirt freshman year, Ramani is on track to become the fourth.

Team Captain and Stanford's male Pac-10 conference medal award winner Sho Nakamori led the six second team members. Joining Nakamori were Eric Hergenrader, Nicholas Noone, Tim Gentry, Ryan Lieberman and Josh Dixon. Nakamori also earned second team honors in 2006 and 2008 and was joined by Hergenrader who was honored for a third time. Hergenrader was a first team member in 2007, before earning second team honors each of the last two years. Lieberman earned his second honor, while Noone, Gentry, Lieberman and Dixon were honored for the first time.

Stanford received the highest academic honor for men's gymnastics for the fifth time in the program's history. The Cardinal tied the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the most honors in the history of the sport. In addition, Stanford has now earned five of the last seven top awards.