Celebrating the Oklahoma Spring Sports Season by the Numbers
By Chip Rouse
Aspiring to win national championships is one thing; realizing that goal is something entirely different. That is what makes the accomplishment of the Oklahoma spring sports teams so very special.
It wasn’t football or basketball – although the Sooners came tantalizingly close to the summit in both of those major sports this sports year, as well – but to be the best in any sport at any level is major in terms of its accomplishment. After all, only one team can make that claim out of the 100-plus that set out at the beginning of the season to reach the same destination.
One week ago, Oklahoma won its third national championship in softball, taking two of three games from Auburn in the Women’s College World Series. The fact that the Sooners did so with a squad largely composed of freshman and sophomores was even more impressive.
In mid-April, the Sooners did something that had never been accomplished before. On the same weekend, the OU men and women carted home the national championship trophy in gymnastics, an unprecedented double-double in that sport.
For the Sooner men, the 2016 national championship completed a second consecutive undefeated season, and the OU women’s gymnastics team claimed their second national title in the past three years.
“I truly felt our defense won us this championship. We were so solid. Never rattled. Never pushed. Never pressed.” —Patty Gasso, OU softball coach
Oklahoma also came very close to capturing a national crown in men’s tennis this spring, as well. For a second consecutive season, the Sooners were matched up against the team from Virginia in the championship final, but fell short on both occasions. In 2015, the OU men were ranked No. 1 and the top overall seed when they advanced to the national championship match. Virginia was in that same position this season.
An all-around sensational spring sports showing by the Oklahoma Sooners. No other NCAA Division 1 program can claim three national championships during the spring sports season.
Here for fun and for those of us who are numerical learners is a statistical summary of Oklahoma’s 2016 championship spring sports season:
2 – The Oklahoma softball team opened up the 2016 season losing its first two games and four of its first 12. The Sooners would lose only four more times the remainder of the season in posting a 57-8 overall record.
5 – Number of consecutive Big 12 championships won by Oklahoma in women’s gymnastics.
6 – Number of Super Six NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championship rounds the OU women’s team has appeared in in the past seven seasons. The Sooners, who were crowned national champions this season and in 2014 have finished in the top three in each of the six seasons.
6 – Number of current and former Sooners who will be competing in the U.S. Olympic Trials for men’s gymnastics later this month.
10 – Number of national championships in men’s gymnastics won by Oklahoma, including back-to-back championships the past two seasons.
28 – Number of days between April 29 and May 26 in which the Oklahoma softball team never trailed in a game.
31 – Number of consecutive games won by the national champion OU softball team between April 3 and June 7, when the Sooners lost to Auburn in game two of the Women’s College World Series championship series.
38 – Wins by the OU women’s gymnastics team this season against a single loss for an overall season record of 38-1.
958 – Number of pitches thrown by Sooner softball pitching ace Paige Parker in posting a 9-0 postseason record prior to the winner-take-all championship finale against Auburn.