COLLEGE GYMNASTICS / NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS : Stanford Men Get Past Nebraska to Claim Second Consecutive Title

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Timing was everything in Stanford’s second consecutive NCAA men’s gymnastics title--in preparation and execution.

With seniors Jair Lynch and Jeff Bender providing the most solid routines of the day, Stanford defeated seven-time champion Nebraska in Saturday’s team finals at the NCAA championships.

The Cardinal, which beat Nebraska in the finals at Lincoln, Neb., last year, did it this time with a score of 276.500. Nebraska scored 275.500, with Ohio State third with 274.050 points.

Stanford Coach Sadao Hamada had predicted his team would win a second consecutive title by patterning its routines to take advantage of the tougher scoring system used in the team finals.

“All year long we introduced tougher routines, knowing we would need 9.3s, 9.4s and 9.5s in the finals,” Hamada said. “A month ago our calculations showed we were four points better than Nebraska, but we were still missing, so we modified some things. Coming in this week, we knew we were still two points better than them.”

Lynch and Bender had the top scores in high bar and pommel horse as Stanford held the lead through all six rotations.

Lynch, ninth in Friday’s all-around competition, scored a 9.50 on pommel horse while Bender added a 9.450. Bender led the high bar with a score of 9.50, with Lynch second at 9.450. UCLA’s Steve McCain won the individual competition on the high bar with a 9.75.

Nebraska, seeking its eighth title since 1979, was unable to get any momentum after struggling through its first three events, including a shaky 45.5 score on pommel horse. Still, Nebraska had a chance until it stumbled to a 44.90 score in its last event--the high bar. That nullified Stanford’s poor showing on parallel bars.

“I don’t know if we peaked a day too soon,” said Cornhusker Coach Francis Allen, whose team had the top qualifying time in Friday’s preliminaries. “The turning point was when we marched in. We didn’t get started well and then we didn’t have a very good score on pommel horse. That was the story.”