Sooners win 9th straight gymnastics title
COLORADO SPRINGS — The No. 1-ranked Oklahoma men's gymnastics team won its ninth straight Mountain Pacific Sports Federation conference title Saturday, beating No. 3 Stanford (411.550), No. 11 Cal (386.950) and No. 14 Air Force (388.350) with a score of 412.750 in Colorado Springs.
The Sooners won two events as a team and placed in the top three in five events.
“I’m unexpectedly super happy. The guys couldn't have performed much better than they did,” said OU head coach Mark Williams. “Going into the last event, we felt a really similar vibe as the 2019 NCAA Championship on the same event and Stanford finishing on the same event. The score difference was pretty close. This time, we rocked high bar and kept the lead.”
Gage Dyer
OU Athletics
The Sooners started the meet on floor and put up a 70.550, giving the team the event title. Junior Morgan Seyler set a career high score of 14.850 and was crowned the MPSF champion on floor exercise. Senior Gage Dyer was close behind with a 14.550, which put him in second place overall.
In the second rotation, the team posted a total of 65.750 on pommel horse. Junior Vitaliy Guimaraes put up a 13.650 and was followed by freshman Zach Nunez with a 13.600.
The team tallied a 69.250 on still rings in the third rotation of the day. Senior Matt Wenske and Seyler set career highs with respective scores of 14.100 and 13.900. Guimaraes tied his career-best score with a 14.100. Wenske and Guimaraes tied for third on the event overall.
In the fourth rotation, the Sooners produced a 72.400 on vault, good for the highest team score of the day for the Sooners. Dyer led the team with a 14.800, which set a season-best score and crowned him the MPSF vault champion. Wenske and senior Mason Menser put up 14.550 and 14.500, respectively.
OU moved to parallel bars for the fifth rotation of the day. The team tallied a 69.450, giving the Sooners the event title. Sophomore Alan Camillus put up a 14.100 and Guimaraes tallied a 13.950, both good for career-best scores. Wenske set his season high score at 14.300.
The Sooners closed the meet with a 65.350 on high bar and were paced by sophomore Jack Freeman. The sophomore put up a 13.500 and was closely followed by Guimaraes with a 13.400.
“I’m pretty happy and proud of my guys,” Williams said. “I’m excited to be moving on to NCAAs in a couple of weeks.”
The Sooners will take a week off from competition before heading to the NCAA Championships, April 15-16 in Minneapolis. The qualifying session will be held Friday before team finals take place Saturday afternoon.