OU Gymnastics: Oklahoma Advances to NCAA Finals

By OU Media Relations

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Oklahoma men’s gymnastics team advanced to its 25th consecutive NCAA Championship finals, posting a team total of 323.460 in the afternoon qualifying session on Friday at Michigan’s Crisler Center.

The top-seeded Sooners placed second in the session and will be joined in the finals by No. 4 Nebraska (324.894) and No. 5 Penn State (321.992). The top three teams from each qualifying session advance to the NCAA Finals. The second qualifier, which features No. 2 Michigan, No. 3 Stanford, No. 6 Illinois, No. 7 Ohio State, No. 10 Navy and No. 11 Army, was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. CT Friday.

The NCAA Championship Finals will be held at 5:30 p.m. CT Saturday, and will be televised on ESPN2 with apparatus streams available on ESPN+.

Senior Emre Dodanli placed first in the session on floor exercise with his 14.200. Oklahoma notched 55.199 on vault in the first rotation, followed by season-high 54.766 on parallel bars, 52.732 on horizontal bar, 55.098 on floor exercise, 51.833 on pommel horse and 53.832 on still rings. The Sooners led through each of the first four rotations, and posted the highest team score on floor, parallel bars and high bar.

“The goal was to qualify, and we did that,” Oklahoma head coach Mark Williams said. “We certainly could do better on pommel horse, and we’ll put together our best lineup for tomorrow night. I’m pleased that we handled the qualification and advance on to the next day. I expect to put it all out there and do better than we did today, and see where we are.”

Sophomore Tyler Flores started the meet for Oklahoma with a 14.100 vault. Sophomore Colin Flores followed with a 13.366, redshirt freshman Arthur Ballon scored 13.700 and senior Brigham Frentheway anchored with a 14.033.

OU stuck three dismounts in its parallel bars rotation. Redshirt junior Fuzzy Benas anchored with a stuck 14.000 and Colin Flores stuck his dismount for a season-high 13.800 in the second spot. Senior Matthew Burgoyne led off with a stuck 13.533 and Tyler Flores scored 13.433.

Redshirt freshman Brandon Zepeda-Orth led off the high bar rotation with a 13.400, Ballon stuck his triple back dismount for a 13.300, Frentheway scored 13.066 and Benas anchored by scoring 12.966.

Dodanli anchored for the Sooners on floor exercise with his 14.200 and Ballon scored just shy of his career high with a 13.866 in the second spot. Burgoyne led off by scoring 13.466 and Frentheway hit a 13.566. Tyler Flores led off on pommel horse with 13.433 and senior Zach Nunez anchored with a 13.500.

Burgoyne tied his career high on rings, scoring 14.200 in the third spot. Freshman Francisco Velez Belendez scored 13.366 and sophomore Tas Hajdu anchored with a 13.500.

The NCAA Championship finals on Saturday evening will determine team, all-around and individual event champions.