OU Gymnastics: Oklahoma Qualifies for 23rd Straight NCAA Championship Finals

By OU Media Relations

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Oklahoma men’s gymnastics team won its qualifying session with a 415.491 and registered the second-highest team score of the qualifying round Friday evening to advance to its 23rd consecutive NCAA Championship Finals.

The No. 2 Sooners will compete against No. 1 Stanford, No. 3 Michigan, No. 4 Illinois, No. 5 Nebraska and host and No. 6-ranked Penn State for the national title at 5 p.m. CT Saturday at Rec Hall.

Fifth-year senior Spencer Goodell and sophomore Emre Dodanli each scored 14 or better on all four of their events. Goodell scored a 14.366 on floor exercise, 14.000 on still rings, 14.633 on vault and 14.433 on parallel bars to total 57.432 on his four events. Dodanli notched the best high bar score of the session with a 14.000, and also posted a 14.333 on floor, 14.600 on vault and 14.166 on parallel bars to total 57.099 in the meet.

Freshman Ignacio Yockers registered the highest pommel horse score of the session with his 14.633. Goodell and Dodanli placed second and third, respectively, on floor exercise.

Oklahoma posted the highest team scores of the session on floor (70.599), pommel horse (67.965) and high bar (67.498). Penn State finished second in the evening session with an all-around 415.290 and Michigan was third with a 413.992. Ohio State (404.492) placed fourth, California (395.055) placed fifth and Springfield College (381.324) placed sixth. Stanford registered the highest team score of the afternoon session with its 421.488.

“I was pleased with our performance,” Oklahoma head coach Mark Williams said. “I felt like we got early momentum. The guys looked poised and ready to go. We had a very good meet overall. The idea was to advance to the finals, and winning our session was a bonus. We’re going to get a chance to start on floor exercise again in the finals, and we think that we can be even better tomorrow.”

Sophomore Brigham Frentheway performed Oklahoma’s first routine of the night and set the tone by scoring a career-high 14.000 on floor exercise. Senior Jack Freeman posted a 13.800 and fifth-year senior Morgan Seyler hit a 14.100, as the Sooners notched four scores of 14 or better on the event. Yockers anchored the pommel team, which included scores of 13.700 by fifth-year senior Vitaliy Guimaraes and 13.866 by junior Zach Nunez.

Goodell anchored OU on the next three events, hitting 14.000 on still rings to cap a 68.866 team score. Seyler started with a 13.833, junior Dan Simmons scored a 13.400, Guimaraes notched a 13.833 and senior Alan Camillus hit a 13.800. Vault was highlighted by Freeman’s starting 14.000 and Guimaraes’ 14.266 before Dodanli and Goodell capped the rotation with a pair of 14.6-plus scores.

Nunez started Oklahoma on parallel bars with a 14.366, and Dodanli and Goodell closed out the event with their respective 14.166 and 14.433 scores. Dodanli led the way on horizontal bar from the third position with his meet-high score. Freshman Kelton Christiansen (13.566) and Freeman (13.533) concluded the meet to push the Sooners just ahead of Penn State.

Oklahoma will begin the finals on floor exercise, the same event on which it started Friday. The Sooners have placed in the top-three at the NCAA finals for 21 straight years and have finished first or second in 19 of those 21 championships.