No. 2 Stanford Travels to No. 1 Oklahoma
March 1, 2016 MPSF Men's Gym Release 7
No. 1 OKLAHOMA Colin Van Wicklen took first in the all-around with a score of 86.600 in the top-ranked Sooners' 447.550-431.100 win over visiting No. 4 Minnesota (Feb. 27). Van Wicklen also posted a career-high 15.500 on high bar to take the event title. He placed second on floor with a 15.850 that was just .050 off his career-best 15.900. Van Wicklen has eight titles in 2016, two in the all-around. Other Sooner wins came from Yul Moldauer on floor (15.900) and parallel bars (15.750), Sergey Resnick on pommel horse (15.300, career-high), and Thao Hoang on rings (15.550). OU accumulated a season-high on pommel horse (73.200) and rings (76.150), while its top scoring event came on floor with a 77.800. No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 2 Stanford meet Saturday (Mar. 5) in Norman, the only two teams in the nation to reach a 447 team total this year.
No. 2 STANFORD tallied 444.600 in topping the International Collegiate Challenge in Burnham Pavilion (Feb. 27). The field included No. 9 California, Canada, Finland, South Africa, and reigning World Champion Japan. Akash Modi took second on floor (15.600) and pommel horse (15.250), and finished with his fourth all-around victory of the year (season-high, 90.850). Dennis Zaremski tied for the rings title (15.250), while the Cardinal racked up 73.750 to cruise to the event win. Taylor Seaton (15.400) and Modi (15.350, career-high tying) went one-two on vault, leading to another event team win (75.050).
No. 11 AIR FORCE Chase Cannon moved into a first-place national tie on high bar with a 15.400 winning routine, giving him a three-score average of 15.233 on the year, as the Falcons topped visiting Illinois-Chicago (Feb. 28), 403.400-375.200. Cannon also won pommel horse (14.300) and parallel bars (13.800). Aaron Nubine shared first-place on vault (14.500) with Jonah Urlaub, while winning floor (14.700) and rings (14.600) outright. Two days earlier, the Falcons posted a season-high and all-time eighth-best Academy total of 427.500 to UIC's 374.150. Tim Wang won two titles, taking vault (15.200) and parallel bars in a career-high tying effort (14.750). Cannon and Nubine shared first on high bar (14.850). The Falcons accumulated a season-high and all-time third-best on pommel horse (72.650).
No. 9 CALIFORNIA Yordan Aleksandrov set a career-high in the all-around (85.400) at the International Collegiate Challenge (Feb. 27), hosted by Stanford. The Bears totaled 419.500. Aaron Mah had a career-high on floor (14.950), as did Bailey Chang on rings (14.200), Gagik Gharibyan on parallel bars (14.250), Nathaniel Ramil on high bar (14.300), and Adam Young on pommel horse (13.650). Cal's highest scoring event came on vault, totaling 71.500, led by Kevin Wolting's 15.050 and Aleksandrov's career-best 14.600. Cal heads to Air Force this week to take on the No. 11 Falcons and No. 5 Illinois.