By Alejandro Salinas on January 22, 2019

During the weekend, Stanford’s No. 1 men’s gymnastics swept No. 9 California and No. 19 NorCal United at the annual Stanford Open in Burnham Pavilion.

In a meet that featured Bay-area rivals, Stanford (2-0) dominated the scoreboard in all six events, posting a final score of 406.300 over second-place Cal (395.750) and NorCal (284.400). The Cardinal, who swept Cal in last week’s season-opener, swept all six events give Stanford a pair of consecutive wins to start the season.

Of the six events, the Cardinal won four titles. Senior Grant Breckenridge registered 14.200 on the parallel bars to capture the title in the event for the second straight week. The veteran also finished second in the high bar (13.400) and second in the collegiate all-around (79.850).

In the floor exercise, the Cardinal swept the top spots with sophomore Bryan Perla posting a career-best 14.700, capturing the event title. He improved on last week’s performance (14.450) in the event. The Worcester, Massachusetts, native was named an All-America Scholar-Athlete by the Collegiate Gymnastics Association (CGA) as a freshman. Perla’s new career-best ties junior Connor Lewis for the Cardinal’s best score in the event this season. Junior Bailey Perez registered 14.600 on the floor to give Stanford the top two finishes in the event.

In the rings event, sophomore Thomas Lee captured his third event title of his career. His strength and abilities were on display in his performance Saturday, which drew roars and cheers from the crowd as he stuck his landing for a career-best 14.300. The sophomore shared his title with Cal’s Harrison Plate as the Cardinal won the event with a score of 69.100 to Cal’s 66.650 and NorCal’s 52.050.

Lewis, a junior from Grove City, Ohio, returns from a sophomore year that saw him claim three event titles and several honors. He was named a CGA Second Team All-America Scholar-Athlete and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) All-Academic Scholar-Athlete.

The vault was possibly the Cardinal’s best showing of the day. Freshman Brody Malone brought home his first collegiate event title with a score of 14.550, a career-best for him and the Cardinal’s highest individual score this season in the event. Matriculating from Trion High School in Trion, Georgia, Malone was a member of a two-time Georgia state championship team.

Lewis registered 14.500 for second followed by Perez’s 14.200 score to wrap up the top three spots in the event. The men accumulated 71.300 points to win the vault, marking the team’s best event performance on paper. In no other event did the Cardinal score higher than 69.500. Cal followed in second (67.900) and NorCal in third (52.050).

Stanford will face the Bears for the third consecutive week when the Cardinal travel to Berkeley, CA, next Sunday afternoon.

Contact Alejandro Salinas at asalinas ‘at’ stanford.edu.