Stanford wins NCAA men’s gymnastics title again

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Freshman Fred Richard of Michigan won three individual crowns — including the all-around — and Asher Hong and Taylor Burkhart went 1-2 on the vault to help top-ranked Stanford win its fourth consecutive title Saturday at the NCAA gymnastics championships.

Hong, who was third all-around, won the vault with a score of 15.333 and Burkhart was second with a 15.000 to help Stanford, which led from start to finish, win its ninth national title with 422.458 points, 2.569 ahead of Richard and the second-place Wolverines. Illinois was third with 415.590 points followed by Oklahoma (414.024), Nebraska (412.427) and Penn State (412.057).

Only Penn State (12), Oklahoma (12) and Illinois (10) have more gymnastics championships than the Cardinal.

Stanford athletic programs have won 132 NCAA team championships, including at least one in each of the last 47 years.

Richard scored a 15 to beat out fellow Wolverine Virgil Watkins (14.666) and win the parallel bars and his 14.433 on the high bar edged second-place Donte McKinney of Nebraska by 0.067.

Illinois had a pair of individual champions as Ashton Anaya won the still rings with a score of 14.800 and Ian Skirkey took the pommel horse, eight-tenths of a point ahead of Oklahoma’s Zach Nunez (14.333).

Stanford’s Nick Kuebler and Richard each scored a 14.800, but Kuebler won the tiebreaker to capture the floor exercise title — the sophomore’s first individual championship.